Mangekyō Sharingan
by Wingwyrm
Summary: Sasuke wanted to be able to use Tsukuyomi. He didn't realise how bad pretending to get the Mangekyō would affect the members of his family. Gen, time travel, description of rape, prequel of Team Tensai not required to understand TT. Complete.
1. Itachi

**Title: **Mangekyō Sharingan

**Rating: **T

**Summary: **Itachi may be a ninja and a chuunin, but he's still ten. He doesn't know what to do when his little brother comes home that afternoon. (Team Tensai 'verse)

**Warnings:** Serious stuff going down here people, get your hanky.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.

**Author Note:** This is for romantiscue because she asked. :) Actually she questioned how it would go down and I couldn't help myself. I had to know too :) I wrote this in present tense because I think it adds to the emotional value. Or something. I don't know, I just wrote it this way and like it :)  
***Note:** Sasuke is acting. This is tied to my Team Tensai 'verse and it was touched on briefly in chapter 4. Sasuke was not actually raped at the age of five, he's gone into the past and wants to use Tsukuyomi, so he needs to pretend to get Mangekyō. If you want more information about how I changed the activation of the Mangekyō you can read Team Tensai, story id: 5561415. Again, chapter 4 has the particulars :)

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Itachi is in the back yard practicing his new kata when he sees, though more like senses, his little brother sneaking in the back door. The ten year old manages to just catch a glimpse of Sasuke as he vanishes through the door and his heart catches in his throat. He is absolutely sure that he'd seen tear tracks on Sasuke's cheeks and blood splatter on his shirt.

Wanting to know why his little brother is covered in blood and crying, Itachi follows Sasuke up the stairs and watches silently as Sasuke goes into the bathroom and he waits for an hour outside the door. Finally he can't help himself and he knocks on the door.

"Otouto?" His voice is soft and he's worried about his baby brother.

"Go away."

Itachi can hardly hear Sasuke through the door and he bites his lip, "What's wrong Baby Brother?" Itachi is ten and Sasuke is only five, so Sasuke really is a baby in Itachi's eyes and the older boy wants so badly to help.

"Go away."

Laying a hand gently against the door, Itachi gracefully falls to his knees, bowing his head, "Please Otouto, tell me what happened."

"Go away."

It feels like those two words are the only words that Sasuke know and Itachi shakes his head. "Sasuke," He tries one more time, voice still gentle and barely audible above the pattering of the water from the shower.

The shower stops and Itachi wonders idly if he should call his brother by name more often. "Aniki..." Itachi can hear something thump against the door and knows that Sasuke is also kneeling, leaning against the door.

The pre-teen chuunin bows his head, "Sasuke," He whispers. He can almost physically feel the pain of his little brother through the thin wooden panel that doubles for a door.

"Aniki, does it ever go away?" The door slides open just a crack and Itachi looks into his brother's unnaturally pale face through the heavy steam. He peripherally notices that Sasuke's skin is bright red and knows that it's from how hot the child had been running the water.

"Does what go away?" He can barely hear his own words, but Sasuke apparently has better ears than himself because the boy closes his eyes and turns his face towards the floor.

"The pain."

Itachi reaches out and pulls Sasuke into a tight hug, cradling the boy close and petting his hair. Something hurt his little brother. Or maybe it was someone because Itachi feels his anger well up like molten lava when Sasuke tenses in his arms and Itachi refuses to show the anger on his face, refuses to let Sasuke see him furious, refuses to frighten his brother. "All physical pain fades Otouto."

Sasuke is silent and then there's a contained blast of killing intent and anger, self loathing and fear, sadness and shame and Itachi can't stand it and then it's suddenly gone as quick as it first appeared. "Does it ever go away?" Sasuke leans back and looks up into Itachi's face and his eyes are bright red and black, circles crossing circles and Itachi knows.

Itachi knows what happened. And he can't breathe because this is his little brother and he has the Mangekyō Sharingan and that means something that Itachi doesn't even want to think about but he can't stop his brain from going there because he's a genius and his heart constricts and he reaches out to cup Sasuke's face and Sasuke flinches.

Itachi can't choke back the emotions running throughout his whole body and tears are crawling down his cheeks and he pulls his hand back not even noticing that it's shaking. "Sasuke," He murmurs, his voice trembling and uncertain.

Sasuke turns away from him looking at the floor and his eyes close and then he leans into Itachi's warmth knowing that Itachi will keep him safe, "His hands were so big," Sasuke's low voice is muffled by Itachi's shirt and Itachi clutches tightly at him.

Itachi can't think of anything to say that would help ease Sasuke's mind so he doesn't say anything at all. He just listens as Sasuke rambles about hands and pain and then blood and no more breathing and all Itachi can think is that he's glad that the bastard that hurt his little brother is deaddeaddead because he would have hunted the man down and tortured him, hurt him, made the head of T&I look like a welcome change in comparison to what he would have done.

When Sasuke has all but fallen asleep on his older brother, Itachi picks him up and takes him to his room. Sasuke is lax in his arms and hands when Itachi dresses him for bed, not looking at anything at all, just staring at the wall or ceiling. Itachi knows that if he contemplates the bruises on his little brother's arms and waist he'll snap, so he doesn't.

Before he leaves, Itachi sits beside Sasuke and stroke his face gently with a finger, "I won't let anyone in your room, okay?" Sasuke doesn't answer, just stares at nothing with blank eyes. Itachi thinks that the shock has finally set in and more tears fall down his face. "I'm so sorry Otouto."

Itachi kisses Sasuke on the forehead and leaves the room. He closes the door and walks down the hall, down the stairs; into the kitchen. His mother is there fixing an afternoon snack for Sasuke, for when Sasuke gets home from playing in the park with his friends. Itachi can't hold it in any longer and his rage erupts like a geyser, suffocating even himself.

Mikoto spins, readying herself in a defensive stance with the knife that she'd been using to cut up an apple. When she can find nothing that could have caused Itachi to release such a feeling she stands down from her instinctive movement. "Itachi-kun," She asks, "What wrong?" She was jounin before she'd retired to have children. She is ready for her son to tell her anything. Anything at all.

"Sasuke has activated the Mangekyō Sharingan."

Anything but that.

The knife drops from her hand and it almost stabs her in the foot, but she twitches unconsciously and the knife misses, plunging into the wood with a thump and sticks there upright and quivering.

Itachi throws himself at his mother and grabs tightly to her kimono while hiccupping through his tears, "Mama," He calls her, something Itachi hasn't call his mother in years.

Mikoto's arms come up around his shoulders and she hugs him back, just a tightly as he is holding her. She can tell that she's gone into light shock but can't seem to shake herself out of it. She holds her eldest son and wonders how she can possibly tell her husband that their baby, that their little Sasuke who they were so proud of just weeks ago for activating his Sharingan, had been raped.

She knows that there isn't a way to tell Fugaku without all hell breaking loose.

"Itachi-chan," Mikoto rocks Itachi back and forth gently, "Where is Sasuke-chan?" Itachi, her first born, her duty to the clan, her beloved son who refused to answer to 'Itachi-chan' when he was four, let go of her clothing and rubbed away the tears on his face.

"I put him to bed. Mama," Itachi's voice cracks as he speaks, "What... I don't know what to do."

Mikoto takes him back into her arms, petting his hair, "I need to talk with your father," she says calmly. She can't get emotional just yet. She won't be able to do what she needs to do if she's emotional, if she's breaking down so she shoves back her motherly affections and lets her jounin mindset take over. She knows that it's not fair to Itachi for her to do this but he understands and takes a step back.

"I... I'll stay with Sasuke. Don't go inside his room. I promised him that I wouldn't let anyone in." Itachi scrubs that last of his tears away.

He watches his mother leave without bothering to make herself presentable for the public and knows that she loves Sasuke. No Uchiha ever left their house without looking their best even if they weren't even leaving the compound.

Pulling the knife from the floor where it had fallen and putting it on the counter, Itachi gets lost in his mind and he walks back up to his little brother's room in a kind of daze. He sits outside the door, guarding against intruders and he tries to imagine what Sasuke has gone through and can't.

The tears come again and Itachi wonders if the tears will ever stop.

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	2. Mikoto

**Title: **Mikoto

**Rating: **T

**Summary: **Mikoto was jounin once. She's seen pretty much everything. Seeing this happen to her son may just break her if she can't help him. (Team Tensai 'verse)

**Warnings:** Serious stuff going down here people, get your hanky.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.

**Author Note:** Okay peps, romantiscue wanted more(and I was inclined to continue ;):), so now I have a continuation with Mikoto. I am thinking of also doing a chapter for Fugaku. What say you?

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Mikoto walks briskly towards the Police Head Quarters and ignores everyone staring at her. She has more important things in her mind then how she looks or how rude she may be acting. It is strange for people to see Lady Uchiha outside of her house looking less than perfect and Mikoto can't bring herself to care about the rumours that will no doubt be going around.

She asks politely for her husband but even the desk clerk knows that something important is going down because Lady Uchiha has never been so short with him before. Mikoto waits for Fugaku and when she sees him coming down the hall, she has to pinch the inside of her wrist to keep from breaking down right there in front of everyone.

"Mikoto?" Fugaku knows her and can see her distress so he takes her hand and leads her to an empty office and locks the door behind them. Mikoto can't hold back a sniffle any longer and Fugaku sharpens, standing up straighter, eyes hardening, "What happened? Is Itachi alright? He hasn't been on a mission out of Konoha for two weeks."

"It's not Itachi-chan," Her use of such a childish honorific for their eldest son scares Fugaku and he takes his wife into his arms.

He murmurs into her ear and strokes her back, comforting her without knowing why. "Darling, what's happened?"

Fugaku is the head of the Konoha Police and that means that he's seen such horrible things that he's ready to hear anything, up to and including the death of one of his children. He sure as hell doesn't want that to be the news because that would break him but he knows that only that or something as horrific as that would make his strong wife break like this.

"Sasuke-chan," Mikoto sobs into his neck, "My Gods, Sasuke-chan!"

There is a moment of pure terror and Fugaku clutches his wife so hard that she moans in pain and he lets go of her with an apology on his lips. The look on her face stops him though and he asks the question that he doesn't want answered, "What happened to Sasuke-chan?"

"He... Our son..." Mikoto struggles to speak and doesn't want to give voice to the terrible thing that had been acted upon her son but she needs desperately for her husband to know. "Mangekyō," she finally whimpers the word out.

A red haze descends over Fugaku and he grasps Mikoto's forearms tightly; tight enough to bruise, "Sasuke... has Mangekyō?" He can't believe his ears. He doesn't want to believe.

"Yes," Mikoto chokes out, completely lost. She doesn't know what to do. She knows that Itachi doesn't know what to do. She isn't sure Fugaku knows what to do.

"Sasuke," Fugaku whispers to himself and drops Mikoto's arms, backs away as the information sinks into his mind. His son, his joy; the child he and his wife had given life to not out of duty to the clan but out of love has been assaulted, violated in the worst possible manner.

"Fugaku," Mikoto reaches out for her husband and Fugaku leans out of her reach. He'll apologise for leaning away later but at this point he has to keep to himself. He has to think.

"I have to go." Fugaku refuses to touch Mikoto as he unlocks the door to the office and stalks off.

Mikoto isn't sure why he's acting like he is but can't stop him from leaving. She struggles to get a hold of herself and her emotions. She needs to go back home and be strong for Sasuke, strong for Itachi who despite all of his genius and ninja experience is still just a child.

Straightening her kimono and wiping her face down, Mikoto pulls herself up from the chair that she had collapsed into and tells herself that Fugaku himself is hurt by the revelation and still loves her and their children. He didn't mean to leave her to deal with it by herself, he had duties to do and he couldn't afford to deal with personal problems when he had the whole of Konoha to take care of.

She nods to the desk clerk on her way out of the building and hurries back home. Itachi is alone with Sasuke right now and she won't leave him to deal with this situation by himself.

She finds her eldest son sitting outside of Sasuke's door still crying. She knows that he's still crying because tears are still running down his face. The fact that his face is completely blank and emotionless scares her, but he is her son. She can read him no matter how he acts.

"Itachi-chan."

"Mother." Itachi looks up at her and she kneels down beside him to wipe away his tears with the corner of her sleeve as though he were once again three and skinned his knee and needing his mother to kiss his fierce battle wounds better. New tears replace the old and Mikoto tries to smile for her boy. She doesn't quite make it and Itachi isn't looking for a smile. "Sasuke will need medical care."

"I know enough," Mikoto has training to deal with various wounds that kunoichi may get in the course of their career and hates that the first time she'll utilize that particular part of her training is on her five year old son.

She helps Itachi stand and lets the boy knock on Sasuke's door. "Otouto?" Itachi calls quietly. There is no answer. Itachi calls again and opens the door. It's dark and Mikoto can't see very far into the room. Itachi hesitantly takes a step inside. He gestures for Mikoto to stay put when she goes to join him and angles himself in the direction of the far corner of the room.

It takes a moment and then Mikoto hears harsh breathing, the kind one hears when someone is panicking and trying to hide.

"Aniki?" Sasuke's voice is low and full of fear and Mikoto has to stop herself from rushing into the room and pulling her son to her bosom.

"It's me Sasuke, and Mother. May we come in?"

Itachi is almost whispering and Mikoto hears Sasuke shuffle a little bit as he moves around in his corner of the room as though trying to get further away from her. "Just Aniki."

Mikoto wants to scream and rage that she is Sasuke's mother, that she isn't a danger to him. She doesn't. Sasuke and Itachi both need her to be calm, to be a rock they can hold onto during the storm.

It's hard, but Mikoto backs out of the doorway and lets Itachi close the door in her face. She can hear murmurs through the door and desperately wants to know what her sons are talking about, what they're saying, but they've closed her out so she waits as patiently as she can; waits for Sasuke to trust Itachi; waits for Sasuke to trust her.

Her boys continue to murmur together for a bit and she is sure that Itachi is the one doing most of the talking and then there is a scream and she can't stop herself from flinging the door open in her concern.

Sasuke is huddled with his blankets under the bed screaming at Itachi stopping only enough to draw a new breath and start his screaming again. Itachi is leaning against the wall, a kunai mere centimetres from his ear and there are several strands of his hair settling on the floor.

"Sasuke, please. Please Otouto, please," Itachi is begging his brother for something and Mikoto grabs her eldest son by the upper arm and drags him out of the room.

"Stay there," She commands and closes the door in his face. It's her turn now.

Sasuke is still screaming.

Mikoto sits primly at the edge of the room and looks at Sasuke and is silent.

Sasuke continues to scream.

When her son has screamed himself horse Mikoto finally speaks, "May I come closer Sasuke-chan?" She doesn't raise her voice and she doesn't move.

Sasuke doesn't move, doesn't say anything, doesn't even blink.

They breathe together for a while and when Mikoto thinks that an hour has gone by she asks again, "May I come closer Sasuke-chan?"

"Mama," Sasuke whimpers and one of his hands creeps out from the blankets cocooned around him and he reaches out in her direction. Mikoto doesn't show her relief and slowly crawls towards her traumatized son.

She takes his hand and sits beside the bed. Sasuke sniffles and she restrains herself from pulling him out from under the bed.

It takes at least another hour but Sasuke finally crawls out from under his bed and into her lap and curls up in her arms and she hugs him tight and rocks him back and forth and while he's drifting off to sleep she sends waves of healing chakra throughout his body. He mumbles into her kimono and presses his face into her body just above her breast.

She continues to rock back and forth and thinks that until Sasuke is ready to let her go she'll hold onto him and never let go, no matter how long it takes.

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	3. Fugaku

**Title: **Fugaku

**Rating: **T

**Summary: **Fugaku is not a weak man; he is a jounin and the head of the Konoha Police. After finding out what has happened to his son he's scared that he'll see the light in Sasuke's eyes die.

**Warnings:** Serious stuff going down here people, get your hanky.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.

**Author Note:** Okay, the Fugaku chapter has been completed. I have promised romantiscue another chapter with Itachi and one with Kakashi so there are at least two more chapters that are going to be done. I can't promise you a happy ending people so don't be expecting Sasuke to be all better at the end.

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Fugaku sits behind his desk after calling the desk clerk and telling him to clear his schedule for the rest of the week. He knows that he shouldn't have been so short with his wife when she was at the station, but he needs to be alone to think about Sasuke.

His son. His precious son. Fugaku would do anything for his sons, do anything for Sasuke. To know that Sasuke has killed a man at such a young age, even a man who has assaulted him, is an emotional blow to his mind that he doesn't know if he'll ever get over.

Not that a person could get over something like this.

There is a knock at his door and Fugaku scowls heavily, "What?" He growls out and Jiro Uchiha sticks his head into the office.

"Fugaku, did something happen? Yori-san said that you're cleared off for the rest of the week." Jiro is Fugaku's first cousin, and because they had grown up like brothers it is hard for the head of the Uchiha family to stay angry at him.

Fugaku's mind turns to Itachi and he wonders how his eldest is dealing with this. He doesn't even know if Itachi knows yet.

Then the thought that everyone in the Uchiha clan will know hits the man suddenly. No one could hide the Mangekyō and Sasuke is still so young.

"Come inside, Jiro," Fugaku waves his cousin in wearily and Jiro seems a bit spooked at how exhausted Fugaku looks. He enters the office and seats himself across from Fugaku, worried.

"Is it one of the boys?" He asks quietly**,** and Fugaku rubs a hand over his face. "It is, isn't it?"

"I need your help." Fugaku never asks for help. He commands people to assist him but never asks for and never uses the word 'help'. Jiro straightens in his seat and nods, listening intently. "I need a quiet search of Oak Park and the area around it."

Jiro cocks his head to the side and frowns, "Oak Park?" He ponders that for a moment before it clicks for him and his face falls into a horrified look, "Sasuke-chan plays at Oak Park."

"Yes. He was there with friends this afternoon."

"Is he missing? Do I need to call for a search?" Jiro is almost panicking as he scrambles to his feet. He remembers just a year previous when the Hyuga heir was kidnapped by Kumo ninja and how that went down. Hinata was still stuttering whenever she could work up the courage to even speak out loud.

Fugaku waves at him to sit back down, "Sasuke is at home." Fugaku shakes his head and buries his face in his hands, "Jiro... you're going to be looking for a body."

Jiro can't believe what Fugaku is telling him and shakes his head, opening his mouth to argue but nothing comes out when Fugaku looks him in the eye. There is something in his cousin's eyes that scares him even more than what Fugaku is saying. "Yes, sir." Jiro finally responds and sits back down. "May I ask how this concerns Sasuke-chan?"

"Mikoto was just here," Fugaku pauses for Jiro to nod. Gossip like the Lady Uchiha visiting the Police Station was never slow getting around. Jiro clears his throat and looks away because he is embarrassed that he's been caught listening to gossip. "Sasuke..." Fugaku feels his throat close up and he can't get the words out.

It's just like with Mikoto when she couldn't tell him but had to. Fugaku doesn't have to tell Jiro what he has found out, but Jiro is his closest friend and an Uchiha as well.

"Fugaku," Jiro leans forward just a bit and licks his lips in hesitancy because he knows that whatever it is Fugaku wants to tell him, it's bad, "You don't have to speak of it now."

"Yes I do," Fugaku sighs, distressed. He doesn't want to bring his family into the spotlight **- **doesn't want to bring Sasuke into the spotlight - but knows that everything that happens to his family will be shared with the clan. At times Fugaku is ready to give up his clan and he occasionally wishes that he'd been born an orphan. This is one of those times.

"Share with me then, Nii-san." Jiro said.

"Sasuke has the Mangekyō." Fugaku can't stop his eyes from burning and his eyes slip into his three tomoe Sharingan without conscious thought. Jiro gapes at Fugaku and seems to be at a loss for any words at all.

Fugaku sits back in his chair and runs his hands through his hair, uncomfortable with how Jiro is looking at him.

"So... This body that you want me to find," Jiro bits his lip, "Sasuke's kill?"

"Self defence. I don't care who says what, it was _self defence_," Fugaku snarls. "I want to find the body and fucking shear it. Burn it to ashes." Rage builds in Fugaku and he has a hard time containing it. Jiro pales as Fugaku's killing intent fills the office. "By the Gods, Sasuke is only five." Fugaku's anger doesn't quite subside, but sadness mutes it and he slumps back into his chair. "Only five," He mutters to himself.

Jiro watches his cousin with dark eyes. He blinks slowly and stands, "Fugaku, I won't be able to search Oak Park and the surrounding area by myself. Not before someone else finds the body."

He is right and Fugaku nods, unhappy with involving more but knowing that it's needed. "Gather as many as you wish," Fugaku doesn't want any part of this anymore. He wants to go home and hug his wife. He wants to go home and hug his sons. He doesn't even know if Sasuke will allow himself to be touched by his father after such an attack.

"Fugaku, perhaps you should go home," Jiro glances away then looks at Fugaku straight in the eye, "Let me take care of this here. Go home. Be with your family."

Thanking Jiro for his concern, Fugaku can't stop himself from taking the offer provided to him and grabs his jounin vest from the coat hanger and leaves. No one bothers him, not a single person talks to him. The gossip mill may be annoying, but it does have its uses.

When he arrives home he finds Itachi curled up in the corner of the couch and Fugaku slips his sandals off and moves towards his eldest.

"Father?" Itachi mumbles as Fugaku's fingers brush over his hair.

Fugaku fingers a few short locks of hair over Itachi's left ear, "What happened?"

"Sasuke threw a kunai at me," Itachi replies in monotone. Itachi doesn't seem angry at his brother, so Fugaku lets it go.

"Where is your mother?"

"She's with Sasuke." Itachi's voice dips in jealously and Fugaku raises an eyebrow at his son. Itachi looks away, embarrassed by his response. "I asked... Sasuke let me into his room and didn't want Mother. I was talking to him and then he started screaming. Mother came into the room and marched me out. She closed the door and has been with Sasuke for almost two hours now."

Fugaku is not a demonstrative man but with things the way they are right now he can't stop himself from folding Itachi into a hug. Itachi hugs him back and sniffles into his shirt. Fugaku shushes him gently and leads him to the kitchen.

"Have you eaten, Itachi?"

"No, sir," Itachi pulls away and Fugaku lets him go. "I'm not hungry."

"You need to eat anyway," Fugaku says. It's not a command, but its close and Itachi nods like all the men under Fugaku's command do when spoken to in that tone.

Fugaku leaves Itachi in the kitchen and goes upstairs. He's terrified and he can't place exactly why. He doesn't know why he's terrified of seeing Sasuke.

As he reaches his son's door he realises that he's terrified because he's seen this kind of thing before, been to crime scenes where this has been the crime and has looked into far too many eyes of children who have a dead stare.

Fugaku is terrified that Sasuke will have that same dead stare.

He rests his palms against the walls beside Sasuke's door and takes a deep breath. He reaches out and knocks almost silently.

His wife's voice answers, "Who is it?" she asks.

"I'm home," Fugaku says. He doesn't know what else to say.

There are voices from behind the door and they're too quiet from Fugaku to hear what is being said. He waits for Mikoto to tell him to either stay where he is, come inside or leave altogether.

To Fugaku's surprise the door slides open and he looks down to see Sasuke standing before him wrapped in the blanket that is usually on his bed.

"Papa?" Sasuke blinks at him.

Fugaku nods and kneels so that he is the same height as his son, so he isn't towering over his son, "Sasuke," he whispers. Fugaku is not a gentle man by nature, but he'll be gentle for his family.

"Papa," Sasuke says again and hugs him around the neck.

Fugaku can feel hot tears on his cheeks and knows that they are his own. He doesn't wipe them away because he is too busy holding the son he thought he may never be allowed to touch again.

He can feel Mikoto's eyes on him and he resolves to speak with her as soon as possible. He knows that he has to thank her for helping Sasuke. He knows that without his wife's steady guiding hands, Sasuke wouldn't allow himself to be anywhere near him right now and he's thankful to her.

So very thankful.

*****xxXXxx*****


	4. Aniki

**Title: **Aniki

**Rating: **T

**Summary: **Itachi loves his brother. He loves his brother so much that he would allow his brother to kill him if it would make Sasuke happy.

**Warnings:** Serious stuff going down here people, get your hanky.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.

**Author Note:** Another Itachi pov. Sadness people. That's all I have to say. _Sadness._

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Itachi is having a hard time dealing with being kicked out of Sasuke's room. He doesn't know why Sasuke screamed at him, it doesn't make sense. They had been talking together and everything was fine; then Itachi had touched Sasuke's shoulder and Sasuke had screamed and dived for the bed, crawling under it and Itachi had tried to get him to stop screaming but then Sasuke had thrown a kunai at him.

Their mother had come into the room then and pushed Itachi out. Told him to stay out and then stayed with Sasuke in his room for a long time. Itachi didn't know how to feel about that.

She was stealing his little brother from him. But she was Sasuke's mother as well, so she wasn't _really_ stealing him away.

Itachi is almost asleep on the couch in the living room when his father comes in the door. He asks Itachi about his hair and Itachi tells him. Itachi isn't mad at Sasuke for what he did; he'll never be mad at Sasuke.

His father insists that he eat and leaves him in the kitchen. Itachi wants desperately to follow his father up the stairs, wants to see Sasuke.

He doesn't.

There really isn't anything that he can do at this moment for his little brother, so he makes a cold supper and puts it in the fridge so Sasuke and his parents can eat when they want to. He cleans the kitchen and goes upstairs and passes by Sasuke's door with only one longing glance at it.

His room is the last one on the right and he closes the door behind himself.

No ninja sleeps naked even in their own home so Itachi changes into a pair of loose pants and a black tee-shirt and gets into bed.

He stares at the ceiling and wonders how he's supposed to help Sasuke.

He drifts in and out of a doze for a while and it's hours later when there is a knock on his door and it opens without him saying anything.

"Aniki?" Itachi lifts his head from the pillow and looks towards the door. He sees Sasuke's outline and sits up.

"Otouto," he says. Itachi is sure that Sasuke wants to be with their mother right now, or even their father instead of him. Father certainly hasn't made Sasuke scream like he has.

"I can't sleep."

Itachi remembers the last time he told Sasuke to come to bed and refuses to say it. The last time he did, Sasuke screamed and Mother stole his little brother from him. "Would you like to rest with me?" He doesn't know what to say to keep Sasuke calm, to keep Sasuke trusting him but he's going to try his best.

Sasuke pauses at the door and then takes a couple steps into the room. He stops at Itachi's bedside and Itachi can finally see through the darkness that his baby brother is wearing one of their father's shirts and a pair of sleep pants that are a size to big for him. The pants had been his once.

"Stay under the sheet, Aniki," Sasuke demands and crawls between the bedcover and the sheet. Itachi is under both the bedcover and the sheet and he can't touch Sasuke.

Exactly how Sasuke wants it Itachi can imagine.

"Otouto," Itachi doesn't reach out to touch Sasuke like he wants to, "Forgive me. Please."

"He had long hair." Sasuke contemplates in a whisper meant only for Itachi's ears. Itachi shivers when he realises that Sasuke is referring to why he started screaming at him. Itachi had caused Sasuke to somehow enter a flashback.

"It's over now Otouto," Itachi whispers back. He isn't afraid of waking their parents because he thinks that they won't sleep tonight, just like he and Sasuke aren't sleeping.

"It will never be over Aniki," Sasuke says, "I'll remember it for the rest of my life. I will _remember it in perfect detail _for the rest of my life."

Itachi draws in a shocked breath and then can't remember why he didn't realise that Sasuke would have had his sharingan activated when he was assaulted. He knows that emotional upheaval activated the sharingan unconsciously.

"Sasuke," Itachi whimpers, "Oh, my baby brother," He can't keep away any longer and nuzzles Sasuke's shoulder with his cheek. He has to ask again, "Forgive me?"

He keeps his arms under the sheet.

Sasuke kisses the top of Itachi's head and mumbles into his hair, "Okay."

"Thank you," Itachi murmurs. He doesn't think he deserves to be forgiven. He rubs his cheek against Sasuke's shoulder again and then leans back.

"No..." Sasuke grabs at him and pulls him back, "Don't leave me, okay? Aniki, you can't leave me."

"I won't," Itachi swears, "I promise, I promise, Sasuke, I won't leave you."

"Okay." Sasuke calms back down and one of his hands starts to pet Itachi's neck under his braid. Itachi is comforted by the action. It tells him that Sasuke won't eschew touching someone.

A shadow appears in the doorway and both boys turn to see who it is.

Fugaku leans against the doorway, "Sasuke-chan?"

"Father," Sasuke doesn't let go of Itachi's neck, doesn't move.

"Are you alright?" It sounds to Itachi that his father is trying to get Sasuke to leave and he is suddenly filled with hatred for his father. Then the hatred leaves and in its place is love, because his mother must have told Father what had happened and Father is just trying to protect Sasuke.

"Yes. I'm staying with Aniki tonight," Sasuke answers their father and curls into Itachi's body just a little bit.

Itachi doesn't move. He won't scare Sasuke again.

Father smiles at them and nods, "Alright."

He leaves, closing the door behind him and Sasuke relaxes just a bit, his grip on Itachi's neck loosening.

They lay in Itachi's bed silently and Itachi wonders how to talk to Sasuke without startling him.

"I'm not fragile, Aniki," Sasuke breaths in a deep breath, "I was hurt, but I'm not fragile."

"You are fragile Sasuke," Itachi refutes Sasuke's words, "You are my baby brother and I didn't protect you."

"You weren't even there."

"I should have been." It's been bothering Itachi since he'd seen Sasuke come home. He should have been watching Sasuke at the park, he'd been asked if he would go with his brother and he'd refused. Itachi had thought that there would have been enough adults going with the six children that were going to the park.

"It's not your fault," Sasuke insists.

"I wasn't doing anything today, Sasuke," Itachi mutters. He was only training, only focusing on himself. Because he'd focused on himself, because he'd ignored his little brother _again_, Sasuke had gotten hurt.

Sasuke snorts, "You can't be there all the time, Aniki."

Itachi knows that Sasuke is right, but it doesn't make him feel better. There were so many times that Sasuke had asked Itachi to help him train, to play with him, to just be around him and every time Sasuke asked, Itachi had said no, said that he had other things to do.

He realises that he feels guilty.

"Are you crying?" Sasuke asks, reaching up to cup his face, "You shouldn't be crying, Itachi-nii." Sasuke wipes the tears away, "You weren't hurt."

"But you were," Itachi pulls his arms from under the sheet and wraps Sasuke in a tight hug, unable to stand not holding his brother, "You were and I didn't stop it and I'm so sorry, so very, _very_ sorry."

"It's okay," Sasuke murmurs under his breath, hugging Itachi back. "It's okay."

Itachi recalls the entire day that's gone by and he can't remember ever seeing Sasuke cry. He'd seen the tear tracks on his face when he'd gotten home that had been washed away with a shower, but he hasn't seen a single tear from Sasuke since.

He isn't sure what that means. He knows that he doesn't like it.

Sasuke should cry. Itachi remembers that he's been told by everyone, even his father, that it's good to cry sometimes. Tears are supposed to help make someone feel better. It hasn't helped Itachi yet, but he's more worried about Sasuke.

"Otouto..." Itachi looks down into Sasuke's face and sees that even now his little brother's dark eyes are free of tears.

"Yes?" Sasuke just looks at him and Itachi is surprised to see that not only is Sasuke free of no tears, but those dark eyes of Sasuke's are completely free of anything at all. Itachi could be looking into the eyes of a dead person for all the emotion he can see.

"Have you cried?" He knows that it isn't a question he should ask, but there isn't any other way to find out. It's important to Itachi and he needs to know.

Sasuke blinks at him and his head drops to the side curiously, "Why?"

"I need to know."

"No," Sasuke shakes his head, "Why would I cry?" He blinks again, "I cried when it happened, but it's over. Why should I cry now, when I'm safe?"

Itachi can't answer Sasuke's question, even though he knows it isn't right. It isn't right for Sasuke to not cry.

Instead he pulls his little brother back into his arms, hugs him tight and lets Sasuke grab his neck with his tiny hands.

Itachi knows that Sasuke knows how to kill a full grown man. If letting Sasuke hold his life in his hands makes his little brother feel safe, then Itachi is willing to put his life in Sasuke's hands.

*****xxXXxx*****


	5. Mother

**Title: **Mother

**Rating: **T

**Summary: **It's the morning after the nightmare started and Mikoto is trying to do everything in her power to help Sasuke. She doesn't know if she'll succeed.

**Warnings:** Serious stuff going down here people, get your hanky. Slight Language

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.

**Author Note:** Another Mikoto chapter and it's like you guys like to make yourselves cry, because you keep coming back for more. Don't worry, this chapter should sate everyone's desire to cry. Seriously.

*****xxXXxx*****

Mikoto watches the sun rise in the sky from her bed. She hasn't slept all night. Neither has Fugaku.

"What happens now?" she asks her husband quietly. He doesn't shift and doesn't move, but he isn't asleep.

Unable to lie in bed any longer, Mikoto gets up and dresses. She pauses outside of Itachi's room, where she knows both of her sons are, but she doesn't knock. She sighs and moves on.

In the kitchen she puts together a small breakfast. She can't think straight even now, so she knows she won't be able to make anything complicated. Sasuke likes porridge anyway. He eats it plain with no cream or brown sugar.

She sits at the table in the softly lit kitchen with her coffee and thinks about her sons. She knows that Itachi likes pocky and other sweets. Sasuke has never liked anything sweet. Mikoto knows that if Itachi ever offered Sasuke a treat though, Sasuke would take it and eat it with a smile on his face.

Sasuke adores his big brother so very much and it will break her heart if what has happened drives a chasm between them, because Itachi loves Sasuke just as much.

Fugaku appears at the bottom of the stairs not long after she sits, and the first thing that Mikoto notices is that he isn't dressed for work.

"You aren't going in?" She asks, faintly surprised. She thought that he'd do the same thing he had done the day before and leave her in the cold to deal with this by herself.

"I cleared off for the week," Fugaku looks at her with a barely concealed expression of reproach, "Just because I was startled yesterday when you burst into the station and blurted out what had happened doesn't mean I'm not going to help you deal with this, Mikoto." His expression drops and he seats himself beside her, looking at her apologetically, "Sorry. I don't quite have my equilibrium back yet."

"It's okay," she tells him quietly. She doesn't have any equilibrium left either.

"I am going to leave for a few hours though," Fugaku continues, "Jiro is checking around Oak Park for me."

Mikoto flinches. She remembers suddenly that her youngest son has killed and that Fugaku is the head of the Konoha Police. There is a body somewhere that will have to be explained.

"Fugaku," Mikoto bits her lip, "What are you going to tell them?" She references the Council of Clans as 'them' because she doesn't want Sasuke to be interrogated, not ever, but especially not after something like this has happened to him.

"I don't know yet," Fugaku steals Mikoto's cup of coffee and takes a sip. He does it every morning before he leaves for work and Mikoto lets him get away with it this morning. Fugaku bends down and kisses her gently, then stands straight and sighs, "I'm going to check with Jiro, see how the search is going."

"You'll be home later?"

"I shouldn't be long past noon," Fugaku kisses her again and grabs his jounin vest on his way out.

Mikoto watches him through the kitchen window. After a while she decides that it's time for the boys to get up and have breakfast. She hopes that Sasuke will be willing to eat, but doesn't expect it.

Her kunoichi training has come back to the forefront of her mind, but she was in too much shock the night before to remember it. Now she remembers and she knows that she has to act just like she did before. She has to be patient and kind, but also cautious and careful. She isn't to startle Sasuke or touch him without permission. She needs to insist that he eats and doesn't shut himself away.

Most of her training is for teenage girls. Most of it applies. Some of it does not, but at least she was able to do the non-intrusive healing last night.

She is sure that Sasuke isn't going to let himself be examined.

When Mikoto knocks on Itachi's door Sasuke is the one to open it. She smiles down at her youngest and entreats him to call his brother for breakfast. Sasuke calls Itachi over his shoulder and follows her back down to the kitchen.

"Would you like a bowl of porridge, Sasuke?" She asks. She's expecting Sasuke to say no.

"I'm okay Mother," Sasuke ducks his head, "I'm not hungry."

Mikoto spoons out a small bowl and hands it to her son, "Go sit at the table," She tells him and he looks at her with a frown. She doesn't say anything else.

He finally concedes, just as Itachi is making his way down the stairs. Unlike Sasuke, her eldest has changed from his sleepwear into a clean set of clothes, ready for the day.

"Otouto," Itachi smiles widely at Sasuke, "Hungry this morning?"

Sasuke ducks his head and mumbles something that sounds like an affirmative. Mikoto mouths a thank you to Itachi over Sasuke's head and Itachi nods back at her.

She is thankful for how much her sons love each other.

Sasuke has always been fairly quiet, so she is a little shocked when he looks directly at her after having eaten half of his porridge, "Am I still going to be allowed to enter the Academy in September?"

Mikoto doesn't know. She's never heard of a rape survivor even wanting to enter the Academy, so she can't answer Sasuke's question. She thinks about it and decides that if he still wants to be a ninja after his assault she won't be in his way.

"I don't see why not." Mikoto makes sure that every move she makes is telegraphed as she reaches out to Sasuke and takes his hand, "There are a few things that we have to go over first though."

Sasuke rolls his eyes, a reassuring action, "Like what?"

"What happened to you yesterday," Mikoto squeezes his hand reassuringly, "What happened was horrible. It should never have happened."

"I know," Sasuke pulls his hand from hers and folds his hands together in his lap, "I was sexually assaulted."

Mikoto doesn't want to say this, doesn't want force her son to do something he doesn't want to, but it's something that needs to be done. He absolutely has to be checked out by a medic. Mikoto hasn't used chakra healing in years and she is afraid that she didn't heal Sasuke correctly last night. The invasive examination that a medic sees to after an assault is usually only to check to make sure that the healing has been done correctly and that there are no other problems. There are a few blood tests and then the victim usually is sent home.

"I need to take you to a medic, Sasuke-chan."

Sasuke's face blanches unnaturally fast and his chair scoots back with a screech against the floor as he kicks away from the table, "No." He shakes his head, "Nonono."

"Sasuke-chan, I want to make sure that you aren't hurt anywhere else, I want to make sure that you're alright."

"He'll want to touch me," Sasuke whimpers, "I don't want him to touch me."

"I can get a female medic, Sasuke," Mikoto reaches for Sasuke and he flinches backwards so fast that his chair falls back and he lands on the floor. He rolls over and gets to his feet, hands clenched into fists.

"No. I refuse."

Unfortunately for Sasuke the medical examination is required by law and even if it wasn't, Mikoto would want her son to see a medic. There isn't any way in hell that she'll allow a potential problem slip by her.

"Sasuke, you have to."

"I don't have to do anything!" Sasuke screams at her and whirls around, running up the stairs. Mikoto hears a door slam but she can't tell if Sasuke has locked himself in his own or in Itachi's room.

Itachi gives Mikoto a look of reproach and Mikoto snarls back at him, "He needs to be checked by a professional Itachi. Just because I healed him last night does not mean that he gets to skip the examination."

"Mother, it is exceedingly cruel to force Sasuke to endure a physical examination at this point."

"If I have to be cruel to keep my children safe, I'll damn well be cruel, Itachi," Mikoto hisses. She stops and looks down at her clenched fists, staring in disbelief. She's never sworn at her children before. She's done a lot of things in the past fourteen hours that she's never done before and it scares her.

"Mother," Itachi's lowered his voice and he sounds different. He sounds like he is trying to understand her and her motives, "It's too soon."

"The exam is always done as soon as possible, Itachi," Mikoto tells her eldest. The exam is done as soon as possible to help the police catch the perpetrator. Making sure the victim is healthy is secondary to catching the perpetrator before he can create another victim.

The primary reason for the speed of the examination doesn't apply in this situation because the perpetrator is already dead and can't hurt anyone else now. The secondary reason for the exam is the only reason that Mikoto wants it done.

Itachi's face clears and he nods, "I'll try to talk to Sasuke."

"Thank you Itachi-kun."

She hates herself for letting her eldest son try to talk Sasuke into submitting for a physical exam when he's still so traumatized. It is supposed to be her job to take care of Sasuke and she shouldn't be passing it off to her son while she calls the closest female medic that specialises in paediatrics: Kimino Uchiha, who also happens to be her first cousin.

Kimino answers her phone within one ring, "Moshi moshi!" She sounds excited. It is her day off, after all. Mikoto doesn't want to pop her bubble of happiness, but needs to.

"Kimi-chan, could you please gather your med-kit and come over?"

"...Mikoto-sama? What's wrong?" Kimi voice turns from bubbly to confused and worried.

Mikoto sighs, "I need you to bring your med-kit," she stops and Kimi makes an encouraging noise over the phone before Mikoto finishes speaking, "And a rape-kit."

There is a tiny gasp and then silence.

Kimi's voice has turned almost black, "Who?" She asks. Kimi is a full time medic at the hospital and since she works closely with the police force, she's been called in to do rape exams on children before.

"Just... come as quickly as you can. Please."

"Yes, Ma'am," Kimi hangs up the phone and Mikoto is left waiting in the kitchen for her cousin to arrive, waiting for Itachi to bring news that Sasuke will submit to the exam, waiting for Fugaku to come home.

She's just left waiting.

---

It doesn't take long for Kimino to arrive at the door and Mikoto lets her in. She can see the questions in Kimino's eyes and shakes her head.

"It's not Itachi." It's not hard to guess that Kimino would assume that it's Itachi who has been assaulted, because he is an active ninja. It hurts to tell Kimino that she's wrong.

A hand comes up and Kimino covers her mouth as she gasps, "Not... Sasuke-chan?" Her eyes are wide and Mikoto nods. "Dear Gods."

Mitkoto watches as Kimino hardens herself for what she's about to do, watches as her grip on her med-kit tightens and she looks up the stairs towards Sasuke's bedroom.

"I used non-invasive healing last night," Mikoto tells Kimino, "I need to know that I didn't fuck it up, I need to know that Sasuke will be okay."

"Calm down, Mikoto," Kimino reaches out and grasps the top of Mikoto's forearm, gently stroking the inside of her elbow with her thumb, "I'll make sure that Sasuke-chan is alright." Kimino's dark brown eyes are kind when she looks to her younger cousin, "I'll come down and talk to you when I'm done, okay?"

Mikoto takes a few breaths to do as Kimino suggested and nods her thanks to the woman. Kimino takes another moment to look at her, then turns and heads up the stairs.

About fifteen minutes later Itachi is coming down the stairs. He looks unhappy even through his blank mask.

"Sasuke asked for you." He says. Mikoto is startled. If Sasuke was going to ask for someone to stay with him she was sure that it would be his older brother.

"Thank you Itachi," Mikoto hugs Itachi and goes up the stairs. She can feel Kimino's chakra signature in Sasuke's room and knocks on the door, "Sasuke-chan?"

"Mama," Sasuke calls out to her and Mikoto goes inside his room. Sasuke is sitting on the end of his bed and Kimino is kneeling to his right with her med-kit open. Sasuke has already changed into a papery hospital gown.

"Sasuke-chan," Mikoto gathers Sasuke into her arms and he hugs her back. "Itachi said you wanted me?"

"I don't want Aniki to see..." Sasuke trails of and looks away. He blinks a few times and then continues, "I need someone here with me. I can't do this by myself."

"Oh, Sasuke," Mikoto hugs him again and he sniffles into her kimono, "Whatever you need, baby, whatever you need."

Kimino directs Mikoto to the middle of Sasuke's bed and has Sasuke lay back. Sasuke grabs hold of Mikoto's hands tightly and she grips his hands with her own, just as tight.

Kimino tells Sasuke everything she's going to do before she does it; she tells him when she's going to touch him and what instrument she's going to use next. As the examination is taking place, Mikoto looks steadily into Sasuke's eyes and sees each and every flinch that he makes. She starts to cry for Sasuke because he isn't crying, and she leans over him. He presses his face into her stomach and she holds him and continues crying.

It feels like forever before Kimino smoothes Sasuke's papery gown over his lower body and leans back.

"I'm all done, Sasuke." She tells him. Sasuke nods into Mikoto's stomach but doesn't draw himself away from his mother.

Mikoto and Kimino share a glance and Kimino twitches her fingers in code and tells Mikoto that she'll be downstairs when Sasuke lets go of her. Mikoto gives Kimino a wretched smile in thanks and Kimino leaves.

Sasuke draws himself up so that his whole body is on the bed and curls around Mikoto. Mikoto rocks him back and forth like she did the night before and starts to hum a lullaby that she hasn't sung for over a year.

Sasuke falls asleep in Mikoto's arms and she shifts him fully onto the bed and draws the bedcover over him. She brushes his bangs out of his eyes and kisses his forehead before she leaves the room, closing the door quietly behind her.

Downstairs Kimino is in the kitchen with Itachi and both of them are silent. Itachi seems to be glaring at Kimino for some reason, but Mikoto is too tired to wrap her mind around why.

"So?" She asks Kimino as she drops into the first chair she comes to.

"You did a fine healing Mikoto," Kimino rests her hands on the table, "Children don't tend to keep scars if their wounds get healed with chakra within the first few hours. I couldn't find any scars. His ribs still need a day or two before they're back to normal. I also found traces of bruising on the back of his head when I did the prelim exam."

Mikoto frowns, "Prelim exam?" She questions.

"Sasuke allowed Itachi to be in the room for the preliminary exam so you weren't there. The prelim is something that is done to get the child used to a medic touching their body. It's done over clothing and we only check above the waist during that portion of the exam," Kimino snarls just a little bit, "We have a fucking procedure for assaulted _children_." She sounds disgusted and Mikoto agrees with her.

Itachi's left eye twitches, but he doesn't say anything. Mikoto can tell that he wants to though.

"What else?" She brings the conversation back to Sasuke.

"Itachi-kun told me that he saw bruises on Sasuke's arms and waist yesterday afternoon when he changed Sasuke for bed, but I saw no signs of them." Kimino rubs her eyes, "If it wasn't for the reason why you had to do chakra healing I'd tell you that you did a wonderful job."

Itachi growls low in his throat, "There is nothing 'wonderful' about it."

"I know, Itachi-kun," Kimino says and pets his hair idly. Itachi calms and Mikoto realises that Kimino had infused her hand with chakra sedative.

"So Sasuke is healthy?" Mikoto asks her cousin. Kimino nods. "Thank you, Kimi-chan."

"I'll take the rape kit to the station," Kimino stands, "If there is someone out there with enough balls to rape the head of the Police's son I want him off the streets as soon as possible."

"He's already dead." Itachi says before Mikoto can.

Kimino whips her head up and stares at Mikoto, "How do you know?" She asks, her voice even in a way that says she's going to explode if she doesn't like the answer.

"Mangekyō," Is all that Mikoto says and Kimino sort of deflates in front of her, all the medic's anger gone. "Sasuke activated his Sharingan," She mutters to herself as though she needs a verbal reminder. "When you take Sasuke to Jogen-san remind him that about Sasuke's activated Sharingan."

Mikoto frowns, "Why?"

"As Sasuke told me," Itachi breaks into their conversation, "He'll remember the attack in perfect detail for the rest of his life."

Mikoto suddenly connects the dots and a high pitched keen escapes her throat. "No! No, oh god, oh god, Sasuke!" She looks up the stairs to Sasuke's room but can't get her legs to move so she can stand and go back to her son.

Kimino grabs Mikoto in a tight hug and shushes her, "Calm Mikoto, calm. Sasuke is asleep, yes? Don't wake Sasuke up, Mikoto, you don't want to wake Sasuke."

Mikoto snaps her mouth shut and she holds onto Kimino for dear life. It just keeps getting worse and worse.

Itachi gets up from his chair and rests his forehead on Mikoto's shoulder, "Mother, we can't break. Not if we want to help Sasuke."

Her son is right, so she pulls herself together through sheer will and straightens up. She lets go of Kimino and brushes the tears from her face.

Kimino steps back now that Mikoto is calm.

"Kimino-san, would you please request Jogen-san call us as soon as he can?" It's easier for Mikoto to ask Kimino to call the Uchiha children's counsellor and ask him to call the family. She didn't have his number anyway and Kimino would be able to answer any health questions Jogen may have about Sasuke.

"I will." Kimino hugged Mikoto once more, then packed her med-kit up, slipped her sandals on and left, "Ja ne."

The door closes behind her and then it's just Mikoto and Itachi again.

Itachi's mask breaks and he wipes a tear from his face, "Mama?"

"It'll be alright, Itachi-chan," Mikoto pulls Itachi to her and holds him tight.

They are her sons and she will never let them go.

*****xxXXxx*****


	6. Father

**Title: **Father

**Rating: **M

**Summary: **What happened to Sasuke should ideally stay in the family, even if the family is made up of 319 people. But when the victim is the son of a highly placed political figure things get complicated. Fugaku doesn't want this but he's willing to try.

**Warnings:** Serious stuff going down here people, get your hanky. Language

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.

**Author Note:** Not as long as 'Mother' was, but still longer than the others. Hope you guys like it. There should be some explanations in here that should answer most of the questions that I've been getting about the Mangekyō and why I changed how it activates :)

*****xxXXxx*****

Fugaku calls an informal Council of Clans together while he's at the station. This is a private matter, but Sasuke isn't legally a ninja; even though Sasuke has grown up with all the rules and expectations of a ninja there will be consequences for his actions. Fugaku thinks the most dangerous of these consequences will be civilian court.

Jiro reports that there is still no news yet but that they haven't stopped looking, before Fugaku leaves the station. Fugaku is thankful and he clasps Jiro's shoulder, "Thank you."

"How's Sasuke?" Jiro asks in a low voice.

Fugaku shakes his head, "He's doing better than most of the children I've seen," A smile graces his face, "He hugged me last night."

"That's great." Jiro smiles back and lets him leave.

The informal Council consists of Hiashi Hyuga, Shibi Aburame, Tsume Inuzuka, Shikaku Nara, Chouza Akimichi, Inoichi Yamanaka and himself. All the others are already in the Council room when Fugaku gets there and Shikaku is the first to speak.

"Uchiha-san," He says, "It's unusual for you to call us together."

"It's a rare occasion when I have something to say to the Council." Fugaku rebuts. He doesn't apologize for his stiff continence, "I have a situation within my family that could herald some talk about the Uchiha clan."

It's rare for Fugaku to call the Council, and it is rarer yet for him to admit to a 'situation' that he can't deal with by himself.

Hiashi, the only other clan leader with equal standing to Fugaku in Konoha, raises an eyebrow at him, "What does this situation consist of?"

"You all have had dealings with the Uchiha clan as a whole, and most of you know that our sharingan is activated by hard work and sometimes mortal danger." Fugaku is keeping his temper on a tight rein. He can't fuck this up.

"Yes," Inoichi brushes his long hair from his face and asks, "Why?"

"I was proud when my eldest son activated his sharingan at the age of eight. It was unprecedented."

"Uchiha-san, we did not agree to gather together to hear you speak of your prodigy," Shikaku rolls his eyes and Fugaku stamps down on his anger.

"My youngest son activated his sharingan at the age of five just weeks ago." Fugaku needs to give the Council some background so they can understand."You all know that we have three stages to our sharingan. The first stage grants an Uchiha the ability to see the flow of chakra. The second stage allows clarity of perception that lets an Uchiha see through a genjutsu and see the smallest and fastest of details. The third stage has the ability to copy almost anything. Put all of these abilities put together allows the wielder of the sharingan to 'see into the future' as some so commonly call it."

It pains Fugaku to be revealing this information, but for his son he would do anything.

"Why are you telling us about your famed dōjutsu? Details of your bloodline have been bantered about as rumours for ages." Shikaku is curious. No wielder of a bloodline lets others in on the secrets of the family.

Hiashi has lost his stoic mask and is staring at Fugaku like he is something to be studied under a microscope. As a fellow ninja boasting a dōjutsu, it must be astounding for him to hear so much from Fugaku about his bloodline.

Shikaku seems to be the voted leader of the group because he is the one who speaks again, "Uchiha-san, what is going on?" Every clan leader in the room looks shocked and most have hidden their apprehension well, but Fugaku is as expert in body and facial language. He can see through any mask.

"There is another level to the sharingan." The room is silent as the heads of the clans wait for Fugaku to explain his statement. "When an Uchiha has activated the third stage of their sharingan it is possible for them to advance it further, to what is called 'Mangekyō Sharingan'. The Mangekyō grants the wielder abilities that far outstrip anything a normal sharingan can do."

"Kaleidoscope?" Shikaku mutters under his breath.

Fugaku nods, "Yes."

"Why haven't we heard of this before?" Hiashi asks before Shikaku can.

"It is not something that is worthy of being spoken of," Fugaku glances away. He can tell that they don't believe him.

"How is it activated?"

"Murder." Fugaku's answer is short. He doesn't want to expand on his answer but knows that he will have to soon. "I am telling you this in confidence." Fugaku releases the hold he has on his anger just a bit and he lets go of the firm hold he has on his killing intent, just enough for everyone in the room to feel it as he bites out his next words furiously, "If I hear of this information being passed on to anyone outside of this circle, I will string you up by your intestines and make you eat your own fucking eyeballs."

Hiashi flinches and Shikaku widens his eyes a little. What Fugaku has just threatened is a serious insult from a man who is the head of a clan known for the reverance they hold for eyes.

But Fugaku is protecting his son and he doesn't care what the heads of the clans think of him at this moment. They all have children and telling people Fugaku personally knows about what happened to Sasuke is hard enough. Telling people he couldn't give a good god-damn about is excruciating.

"Why are you threatening us?" Shikaku Nara is the first to speak.

"Because my youngest son has evolved his sharingan to the highest level known to the Uchiha clan. He has Mangekyō Sharingan."

"If all it takes is murder for your sharingan to evolve, every Uchiha ninja would have it." Shikaku is sly and he practically demands that Fugaku finish telling what he called the Council of Clan together for. He also can understand why Fugaku would want to involve the Council if his son is accused of murder.

"The man that Sasuke killed; the man that's dead, -" Fugaku pauses and takes a breath, "- he raped Sasuke-kun."

There is complete silence in the council room as the clan leaders process the information. There is an air of uncertainty among them and they can't seem to decide whether to be quietly horrified or cheering for Sasuke's first kill.

Each and every clan head is a ninja. They all appreciate good revenge.

Fugaku can see horror on Shikaku's face and feels a sharp bite of smugness. The bastard never should have pressed and Fugaku can see on his face that he regrets it. Shikaku has a son Sasuke's age after all.

Shikaku's knees give out from under him and he sits heavily in the chair behind him. "Sex and murder," He murmurs to himself with a wide-eyed glance at Fugaku. Fugaku doesn't deem it necessary to respond.

The council members are staring at Fugaku with horror in their eyes and they can't seem to find anything to say to him. It isn't inconceivable for them, the rape of a child, but to have it happen to one of their own comes as a shock.

Inoichi is the first to recover. He is involved with the Torture and Interrogation department after all. "If the abilities of this... Mangekyō are so great, why don't more of the Uchiha request seduction missions? It would be easy enough to find the target, sleep with the target, kill the target, and then come home. Not only would you activate your Mangekyō, you'd get paid to do so."

"Power always comes at a price," Fugaku glowers at Inoichi, "The cost of using Mangekyō is blindness."

Hiashi chokes on his own spit and coughs as he asks, "Blindness?"

"The Mangekyō is too powerful. It distorts the chakra veins around the eyes, choking the optic nerve, and causes haemorrhaging that will bleed into the vitreous chamber of the eyeball. That causes the wielder to cry tears of blood." Fugaku smiles in a self-deprecating manner as he adds some morbid humour to his report, "Though crying blood is an effective way to make your opponent lose confidence, it is still damaging to the user."

Shikaku steers the conversation back to the original purpose of discussing Sasuke and his first kill, "So what would you like us to do about this murder, Uchiha-san?"

"My second in command, Jiro Uchiha, hasn't yet found the body, but it's only been eighteen hours." Fugaku bites his lip, "I would like three of you to come with me to see Sandaime-sama. This case is going to be very public even if it is a clear-cut case of self defence. The civilian prosecutor will likely argue that my son has been trained to be a killing machine since a very young age and knew exactly what he was doing."

Fugaku takes a deep breath to hold back his tears and straightens infinitesimally, "I will not allow my son to be dragged into a court case for no reason and I will not allow some lily-livered bastard to interrogate my son." He scowls, "I sure as _hell_ am not going to let someone interrogate my son in front of the public and make him relive this nightmare."

Tsume is the first to stand. In fact she practically jumps to her feet, "I will stand with you," She exclaims loudly, "I got a boy Sasuke's age and I sure as hell wouldn't put up with that bullshit either."

Fugaku bows his head to her, "My thanks, Inuzuka-san."

"Bah, call me Tsume. If we're goin' to Sarutobi-sama to talk about a chance to pound on some civvies we haven't got a need to be so damned formal." She stalks over to him and grabs his hand, "O' course I'll be bringin' Kuromaru with us." She shakes her head while muttering to him in confidence, as though they are the best of friends, "Don't know why Hiashi is such a prick about Kuromaru comin' to the meetin's, but whatever. You don't mind, do you?"

Fugaku has dealt with Inuzukas before but never one as so hyperactive as Tsume so he is a little overwhelmed by her. He has not associated himself with the Alpha of the Inuzuka clan outside of the Council and is shocked by her enthusiastic nature outside of official council business, "I see no problem with Kuromaru joining us."

"That's great." She smiles at him from under her long red tattoo's, all teeth and fierce eyes and turns to the rest of the council members, "Who's coming with us?"

Chouza heaves himself to his feet and ambles across the room, "I'll come."

Fugaku doesn't have time to thank Chouza before Shibi places a hand on his shoulder and speaks, "I will come as well."

Shikaku sighs, "Would one more help your cause? Because you know my wife will skin me alive if I don't help and she hears about it." He rolls his eyes and mutters, "She hears about everything anyway. So troublesome..."

"Damn it," Inoichi stands up, "I've got a little girl. I'm not going to put up with this either."

All six of them look to Hiashi and the Hyuga shrugs his shoulders, "I have two children of my own as well as my brother's son to care for. There was never any doubt about my involvement."

"Thank you." Fugaku feels strange. He never expected this show of support, never thought that the other clans of Konoha would feel like this.

The Uchiha clan has been separate from the rest of Konoha for so long that they have forgotten how it feels to team up with someone not related to them. Knowing that he can count on every great clan in Konoha is a strange thing and Fugaku can't put a word to what he is feeling even for the life of him.

He stares at his comrades and realises that this is the Konoha he wants to belong to. This is the Konoha he thought his clan would create when they took power from the Senju and ascended to the Hokage Tower, victorious for once in their lives.

He thinks that maybe the Uchiha's plans need readdressing. He thinks that maybe the Senju weren't entirely wrong in how they went about creating Konoha.

He thinks that he might be eternally grateful that Konoha is where his sons are growing up.

*****xxXXxx*****


	7. Council

**Title: **Council

**Rating: **M

**Summary: **Fugaku has gotten the Council on his side. Sarutobi talks with the Council and then Fugaku gets a message from Jiro.

**Warnings:** Serious stuff going down here people, get your hanky. Slight Language. Angst. Drama. Blood.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.

**Author Note:** I have no notes. None at all. Sorry peeps.

*****xxXXxx*****

Fugaku stands in front of the secretary that handles the appointments for the Hokage and knows that she is ANBU. He stares her down anyway.

"We have business with the Hokage."

"I'm sorry, sir," She says, "The Hokage's day is full. I can put an appointment-"

"We come as the Council of Clans, Arisu-san," Inoichi interrupts her before Fugaku can. Inoichi is one of the more congenial clan leaders, but he is also in T&I. That carries a lot more weight with ANBU, apparently, than the head of the Police force because her eyes focus on Inoichi as though he was the most dangerous of their group.

Fugaku takes a deep breath to calm himself and redirects her attention back to him. "Tell Sarutobi-sama that the Council has something to discuss with him. Let him decide if that is more important than anything else he has at the moment."

Konoha is not at war. Konoha's ninja were in fine form. Some of the most powerful and influential of the jounin are on the Council and many are involved in the security of Konoha. If there was something more important going on, Inoichi at the very least would not be able to be with them.

Arisu stands and goes into the Hokage's office. She steps back out less than a minute later. "Please, the Hokage will see you now."

Fugaku leads the others into the office.

Hiruzen Sarutobi looks up from his paperwork, not looking pleased, though he doesn't look unhappy either. He is very carefully blank. It is usually good policy for ninja to hide their emotions around those that could mean them harm or trouble.

It strikes Fugaku that the Hokage is expecting new restrictions or laws that the clans feel are necessary. He wonders if he ever would have cared before the incident that the Hokage of Konoha holds such animosity towards him because the only time they see each other they are on separate sides of an issue.

Fugaku doesn't think he would have cared and now he finds himself abhorrently thankful that he's had a dose of reality shoved in his face, even if it was such a terrible way for fate to work.

"What can I do for the esteemed Council of Clans today?" Sarutobi asks congenially.

Fugaku is about to step forward when Shikaku does so first.

"There has been a civilian murder, Sarutobi-sama," The Nara reports, "Involving a civilian member of a ninja clan."

"I see," Sarutobi strokes his beard with a single, steady hand.

"There will be unfortunate and possibly damaging rumours if the circumstances of the kill are made public." Shikaku continues, "A child was involved."

"Academy student?" Sarutobi questions.

Shikaku shakes his head, "Scheduled to begin in the fall." Shikaku is being deliberately misleading about Sasuke's age and he has just as obviously not stated which clan the child belongs too.

"So, you have come to me?" Sarutobi leaves the question hanging between the seven clan leaders and himself.

"We wish to petition that the Ninja of Konoha do not involve themselves even though the child will come under Ninja Law when the semester starts."

Sarutobi moves his eyes over the group and Fugaku feels his stomach tighten. He doesn't want the Hokage to know that it was Sasuke. He doesn't want the Hokage to know about Sasuke's sharingan. He doesn't want to have to admit to this revered man that he was so neglectful of his son that Sasuke had been drawn off by a predator and raped.

He doesn't want his children taken from him.

It is an irrational fear, someone taking his children, but that is why Fugaku labels it 'irrational'. It is not something that he can control.

"Listen Hokage-sama," Tsume flings herself out from the congregation of men and stands in front of Sarutobi with a look of defiance on her face, "We know who did it, what happened, and why. The Pup is going to float off with either justifiable homicide or self defence stamped on his record. There isn't any reason for ninja to be involved."

Sarutobi's eyes leave Tsume and catch Fugaku's. Fugaku knows that Sarutobi wouldn't have found out yet, but he also knows that Sarutobi isn't called 'God Of Ninja' for no reason. "Are you saving a child from humiliation and trauma, or saving the face of the clan the child belongs to?" Sarutobi asks all the gathered Council members but he is still looking directly at Fugaku.

"Saving the child," Fugaku answers in a low voice. "None of us are here to save face for the clan; we are here for the child."

Sarutobi's gaze lingers a while longer before he nods. "I understand. No ninja will be involved unless invited by the full Council." He states his decree and Arisu is suddenly at his side with a scroll. He stamps the scroll with his unique signature and holds it out. Tsume takes it and tosses it over her shoulder to Shikaku. Shikaku does not pass it on to Fugaku.

The Uchiha is thankful for the discretion he shows.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Fugaku bows his head and the others follow him out of the office.

Kuromaru bumps his legs when they arrive back at the Council chambers and Fugaku looks down at him.

"He wants to know if you're alright." Tsume translates for her partner and Fugaku blinks and nods.

"I am."

"Bullshit," She says and pulls him to the side, "You aren't alright; we can smell it on you." She leans in closer than anyone except his immediate family has ever been and sniffs his neck deeply.

He places a hand on her shoulder and pushes her back gently , "I am fine, Tsume-san." They both know that he is lying.

She shakes her head, confusion lurking in her eyes, "I don't understand why you aren't leaning on someone. Gods, man. You should be able to talk to someone." She scowls, "You haven't talked to your wife, have you?"

"Mikoto is-" Fugaku trails off. He realises that the Inuzuka has a point. He should be talking to someone. He thinks that maybe that was what his wife wanted to do when she left their bed early in the morning. It may be that she needs to talk as well.

Who better to trust than a spouse?

"Mikoto-san is going to kick your ass when she gets a hold of you." Fugaku can tell that Tsume would have smirked at him if they had been talking about anything less than the current situation.

He licks his lips and his gaze shifts to the floor and then back up to the brunet woman, "I know."

"Well," She leans back and seems to look him over, as though he's done something that requires her to reassess him. "At least you have a brain and are making use of it." She finishes after a moment. He thinks that she's getting ready to leave, when she leans in again and places their faces cheek to cheek. "You aren't as bad as you seem." And then she whirls around and bounds out the door, Kuromaru at her feet.

Fugaku looks around the room and finds that all the other clan leaders have also left, with the exception of Shikaku.

"Shikaku-san," He murmurs.

Shikaku shakes his head and sighs. "If you're serious about this 'clans stand together' shtick that you've started I guess I best be the first to take the proper steps." Fugaku has no idea what Shikaku means about the 'shtick' and is surprised when the lazy Nara holds his hand out to him. "Shikaku Nara, head of the Nara clan, cordially invites you, Fugaku Uchiha, and your immediate family to dine with him in the Nara compound."

This is the most formal Fugaku has ever witnessed from a Nara and he stands in place, shocked. Not only is this the most formal Shikaku has ever been, this is the first invitation an Uchiha, any Uchiha, has ever received to dine with another family in a clan compound.

He blinks away his shock and grips Shikaku's arm in a warriors clasp, "Fugaku Uchiha and his family graciously accepts Shikaku Nara's invitation and thanks him for it." If Shikaku is willing to adhere to the old formality between clans, Fugaku is not going to refuse to respond in kind.

"Excellent. I will send you a notice with a few different days we will keep open," Shikaku sighs again and nods to Fugaku before exiting the council chambers.

Fugaku moves to his regular chair and drops into it. He leans over his knees and places his face in his hands, breathing deeply, trying to retain the composure that he has managed to hold onto since Mikoto told him of Sasuke's attack.

It doesn't work and he is desperately sucking air into his lungs between his stifled sobs.

There are no tears on his face; he lost the ability to cry a long time ago.

A knock on the closed door forces Fugaku to exercise his tight control and he clears his face of emotions and calms his breathing. Only his wife has seen him in distress and he has vowed that she is the only one that will ever see it.

A suited ANBU stands at the door and Fugaku glowers at him. "What?"

"There was a call from the Station for you, Uchiha-san." ANBU never called anyone but the Hokage '-sama'.

"Is it important?" Fugaku wants to go home and see his wife. He wants to go home and see his sons.

"The message is from Jiro Uchiha."

Without even thinking, Fugaku pushes past the ANBU and almost runs down hall to a window. He needs to talk to Jiro. He needs to know if the body has been found.

Hands grab him and throw him into a wall. The ANBU's mask is right in his face, "Does the information concern Konohagakure?"

"No," Fugaku wrenches himself from the hands holding him, "Civilian matter."

"A civilian matter that concerns The Uchiha so much he is willing to physically assault ANBU?" The voice lilts and Fugaku only vaguely remembers pushing the ANBU out of his way. Technically what he did could be interpreted as an 'assault'.

Fugaku controls himself and doesn't lash out like he wishes to. "Civilian children have been assaulted by a pedophile, Karasu-san," His voice is low so it doesn't carry and he is willing to stretch the truth, "Jiro Uchiha has been working the case. If he has news about his case, I need to know."

Karasu lets him go and cocks his head to the side. Fugaku can sense surprise from him. "Thank you for your hard work," Karasu bows to him and flickers away.

Shaking the unusual response out of his head, Fugaku heads back towards the window and gathers his chakra. With a quick flicker he is standing outside of the Station and can see Jiro waiting for him just outside the doors.

"Jiro."

Jiro turns to him and his face is grim. "Fugaku." Jiro twists his head and Fugaku hears his neck crack. "It's not pretty."

"Death never is," Fugaku closes his eyes, "Has the body been moved?"

"Not yet. I told them to wait until you'd been to the scene." Jiro bites his lip. "Eight blocks southwest of Oak Park; a prostitute motel," Jiro sounds disgusted and Fugaku understands the sentiment. A motel that catered to prostitutes should never be so close to a place where children play.

"Room number?"

"Fifteen."

Fugaku has flickered more today than he ever has before. He wonders briefly how Shisui can stand the multiple flickers, because he feels sick to his stomach.

The door has crime scene tape over it and Fugaku ducks under it to enter the room.

The body on the bed looks like raw hamburger. There is a bloody knife lying on the floor to the side of the bed; a switchblade, from what Fugaku knows about bladed weapons. A civilian weapon.

The man's face has been ripped almost completely apart. He is not wearing any clothes. Fugaku's eyes are drawn to the man's groin and he flinches. Then he thinks that the bastard deserved it.

Sasuke castrated him.

There is blood splattering on the bed, floor and walls. The room has been torn apart and a cold rage settles in Fugaku. He wants to pick the knife up and continue his son's work, continue carving the body to little pieces.

A hand touches his elbow and he jerks he head from the scene to look into Jiro's black eyes.

"Don't let your anger activate your sharingan," Jiro warns him. Fugaku blinks several times. He is surprised it hasn't already activated and he closes his eyes and inhales deeply. The smell of coagulated blood and stale sex fills his nose and he stumbles from the room, a hand over his mouth.

He falls to his knees on the small grass area in front of the room and his body folds in on itself. "My son. My son. My Sasuke. Oh Gods have mercy, my son." He whimpers to himself, unconsciously whispering out loud.

Had he still been able to cry, a torrent would have been running from his eyes.

A warm hand settles on his shoulder, and he turns his head away from his chest just enough to see Jiro kneeling beside him.

"Fugaku." Jiro sounds worried and Fugaku blinks at him. "Fugaku, you shouldn't have-; I shouldn't have let you see-"

"I needed to," Fugaku cuts him off. His voice is hoarse.

"No, you didn't," Jiro tells him sorrowfully, "You didn't."

Fugaku sits up on his heels and turns his face upwards, watching the sun in the sky. Jiro's hand is still on his shoulder.

"How can the sun still be shining?" He whispers to Jiro, tired and hurt and pained. His head aches and his sides throb and his eyes are so damn dry.

"Let me deal with this," Jiro tells him softly, "You need to go home."

"And face Sasuke?" Fugaku questions incredulously, "I can't face Sasuke after-"He cuts himself off and tries again in a quieter tone, "I can't go home and kiss my wife and hug my son and look Sasuke in the face after this. Not after seeing-" He stops talking altogether.

"You must," Jiro stands and leans down, grabbing his arm and forcing him to stand. "You must go home, you must kiss your wife and hug your son. You must look Sasuke in the face." Jiro shakes Fugaku lightly, "You must," He repeats, "You must tell Sasuke you love him."

Fugaku's body wavers as Jiro lets him go. "I- I don't know if-" Fugaku's face falls and he doesn't think that he can be around his son. Not after seeing the result of what had happened to him. He isn't sure that he'll be able to handle the pain.

"You have to be strong for Sasuke." Jiro tells him.

Fugaku thinks about that for several moments. He thinks that Jiro is right. "I do. I-," He straightens up and licks his lips, drawing his Uchiha dignity around himself like a shield, "I have to be strong. For Itachi, for Mikoto." His voice drops, "For Sasuke."

"Leave this part to me, Fugaku. Focus on Sasuke and your family. You don't need to do everything alone," Jiro waves an Uchiha jounin over and hands Fugaku off to him. "Take Uchiha-sama home."

The Uchiha nods and grasps Fugaku gently, "Uchiha-sama," He acknowledges the head of his clan and they vanish.

Fugaku finds himself outside of his house and blinks to clear his thoughts.

"Fugaku?" Mikoto steps out of the door and looks from him to his escort, "What happened? Is my husband alright?" She takes him from his escort and the Uchiha bows to them.

"Jiro-san instructed me to bring Uchiha-sama home, Lady Uchiha," The Uchiha shifts his eyes from the Lady to his Lord and back again. "We were at a crime scene."

"Crime scene-" Mikoto stops. Fugaku knows she's realised that only one crime scene in the world would make him react like this.

He pulls her to him and hugs her tightly.

The Uchiha jounin flickers away to give them privacy and Fugaku leads his wife inside the house.

"Fugaku?" She asks him when they are inside.

He dips his head down and kisses her sweetly on the mouth. She kisses him back and they draw apart. "Jiro found the body." Mikoto nods. Fugaku hugs her again, burying his face in her warm neck, breathing her scent. "I've left the rest of the investigation to him."

"I understand," She says.

"Father?" Both adults turn to see Sasuke standing on the bottom step of the stairs, his hair damp from a shower.

"Sasuke," Fugaku lets go of Mikoto and goes to his son, his most precious son; his son who is strong enough to survive rape and reap revenge.

He gathers Sasuke in a hug and Sasuke gasps lightly, startled, "Father?"

"I love you," Fugaku whispers into Sasuke's ear, "I always have and always will love you."

Sasuke doesn't say anything for a long time.

Just before Fugaku lets his son go, Sasuke hugs him back, tight enough to make his ribs creak.

"I love you too."

*****xxXXxx*****


	8. Sasuke

**Title: **Sasuke

**Rating: **T

**Summary: **Sasuke isn't impressed with this 'therapy' bullshit. But he's trying to make up to family for what he's put them through.

**Warnings:** Serious stuff going down here people, get your hanky. Slight Language.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto owns Naruto.

**Author Note:** I was going to have this as the seventh chapter and then got hit in the head with a request for something that would have happened in between chapter six and this one. So I postponed this one :)

-Also, this may answer even _more_ questions and concerns that I've been receiving. I hope it helps clear some things up :)

*****xxXXxx*****

"Why do you feel unworthy Sasuke?" Jogen has been working up to this question ever since Sasuke let out that not only did he feel angry, sad, used, dirty and ashamed, but unworthy.

Sasuke has been, it seems to Jogen, surprisingly open during his second day of therapy about the six day old assault. Sasuke just doesn't want to do therapy every other day for a year like his mother is thinking of scheduling for him. Once a week is too much for him, he thinks, but it's probably the best he can hope for.

"I... left. I went to him." Sasuke is talking about his leaving Konoha and going to Orochimaru. He knows that Naruto forgives him and he knows that Jogen is talking about the fake assault, but Sasuke is almost pleased that he's finally getting help for what the snake bastard did to him in Oto, even if it's years later.

"Sasuke-kun, you were coerced." Jogen leans forward in his chair but doesn't touch Sasuke as he points this out, "The man that assaulted you lured you away from your group and the people watching you. It's not your fault."

Sasuke scowls, "I still feel unworthy."

"What do you think you are unworthy for, Sasuke?"

"Serving my Hokage." Technically it's true. Even knowing that Naruto loves him and was willing to die to bring him back to Konoha, Sasuke knows deep in his heart that because of his defection he isn't worthy of serving Naruto.

"That's a grand goal," Jogen encourages him to continue, "You're thinking of becoming a ninja?"

"I'm slated to start the Academy in the fall," Sasuke says.

Jogen leans back in his chair, "Congratulations." He says. Sasuke watches him warily. It's not that Sasuke doesn't trust the man, but he really doesn't know him. He sort of remembers him from before the massacre, but the memories are blurry because he never had any direct contact with this Uchiha.

"Thanks."

"Why do you think this assault has made you unworthy of serving the Hokage?" Jogen asks again.

Sasuke blinks and tries to think of a way to twist his words so they'll make sense in the current situation, "I trusted the wrong person. I was thinking of myself, not anyone else. That's not what ninja do."

"Sometimes it is," Jogen directs the conversation back to Sasuke, "You have to remember that you are still a child, Sasuke," Jogen looks like he want to pat Sasuke on the shoulder and he's grateful that the man doesn't touch him.

"I'm an Uchiha prodigy," Sasuke mutters, "We don't get to be 'children'."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke is glad that he's managed to bring someone else into the equation so he doesn't have to talk about the staged rape. He finds it harder then he thought it would be to twist his words so they match up with the events.

"Aniki is a chuunin. He graduated at eight and made Chuunin at nine. I'm going to graduate at six and hopefully pass the first exam chuunin I participate in. We are ninja." Sasuke looks at the ground, "We have been told every day of our lives that we will grow up and serve the Hokage."

It had broken Itachi the first time. It almost broke Sasuke the first time. Sasuke hopes that he'll be able to stop it this time around.

"You feel pressured at home? Do you think you disappointed your parents by 'letting' your rapist lure you to a place where you were alone with him?"

"... I don't know." Sasuke doesn't want to answer that. He knows that if his parents had been alive when he was twelve they would have been disappointed.

But for all the wrong reasons. Last time they were about to create a civil war that would have killed a lot of people. They would have been disappointed that Sasuke hadn't managed to kill or even defeat Naruto last time.

He doesn't feel like he's disappointed them this time. His parents love him and want him happy this time instead of seeing him as peripheral to his brother. He thinks that maybe the 'rape' brought him to the forefront of their minds and that maybe they've realised that they had been treating him like a badly made copy of Itachi.

Jogen smiled softly, "Yes, you do know."

Sasuke bit his lip and frowned. "No?" He tries to state his answer but he doesn't quite accomplish it and his word comes out as a question.

"Is that an answer or a question, Sasuke?"

"No." Sasuke repeats firmly, "No, I didn't disappoint them." And he didn't. Not these parents, not the parents he has now, not the parents that he's grown to love since he came back.

"You're right, you didn't disappoint anyone. You are a child and you aren't at fault." Jogen seems to think that Sasuke's made a breakthrough by saying 'no'. He probably thinks Sasuke understands that he didn't disappoint his parents by getting coerced to follow a stranger.

Sasuke knows he didn't disappoint these parents when he _didn't_ kill Naruto, his Konoha comrade, at the Valley at the End.

"Do you still think that you're unworthy, Sasuke?" Jogen brings back his question. Sasuke thinks that it must be an important question, because the man is like a dog with a bone about it.

"Yes." Sasuke doesn't think he's unworthy, he knows he's unworthy. It's something that will never go away for him. He betrayed Naruto. He tried to kill Naruto. And even worse than getting raped by the man he betrayed his best friend for, is that Naruto _forgave_ him.

He isn't worthy of Naruto's forgiveness.

"But you still want to be a ninja."

"Yes."

"Would you feel comfortable following in your father's footsteps by becoming a police officer?"

Sasuke represses a snort. There is no way in hell that he would ever forsake Naruto again and since Naruto still wants to be Hokage, Sasuke will be a ninja and follow him, protect him. That's the only goal Sasuke has anymore.

"No. I will be a ninja." He must sound resigned, because Jogen looks worried.

"Do you want to be a ninja, Sasuke? Truly?"

"I have no other ambition." Being a ninja is all the ambition he needs now. He'll be a ninja and he'll continue making up for what he's done.

"It's not healthy to only have one goal, Sasuke," Jogen tells him, "You should set other goals as well."

"Like getting strong? So what happened will never happen again?" The last time Sasuke had the goal of becoming strong he nearly killed Naruto.

"That's an excellent goal as well," Jogen sighs, "What I mean though is that you should try setting smaller goals, maybe one goal you can accomplish every day. For example, you could set a goal to do all the dishes for one day. Or you could set a goal of making a relative smile. Small steps will help you feel less helpless."

Sasuke scoffs in his head. Small goals. There was no point in small goals, because all his small goals would lead up to his one single ambition.

Protect Naruto.

"I think that we'll end here today, Sasuke," Jogen stands up and Sasuke follows suit, "I'd like to ask that you try setting daily goals for the next few days."

"Okay." Sasuke doesn't want to set goals, but he'll do it because his mother will ask and Itachi will check on him, and Sasuke likes his family and doesn't want to hurt them anymore then he already has.

He hadn't expected the reaction he got when he started this charade. He remembers his parents as being distant and focusing only on Itachi. He supposes that some good has come from this though, because he's seen his father talking amicably with Hiashi Hyuga and Tsume Inuzuka, two people Fugaku never would have talked to before, never mind companionably.

Jogen hands him a notebook with a chakra lock on it, "Since we are Uchiha, I thought that a daily notebook with this kind of lock would be best," He smiles at Sasuke and Sasuke frowns. "Oh, don't worry, you don't have to write everything down, just a little something from each day. Even if you just write 'Completed goals today' or whatever."

Sasuke takes the notebook and looks at it dubiously. The only good thing he can see about this is that he can set his own traps in the chakra lock so the book may turn out to be more secure then the Forbidden Scroll ever was.

He finally puts the book in his backpack and follows Jogen to the door.

Itachi is waiting outside in the lobby and straightens when Sasuke steps outside the office.

"Otouto."

"Aniki," Sasuke murmurs. It surprises Sasuke at how tired he feels. He hadn't thought that sitting in an office talking for an hour and a half would make him weary.

"Thank you Jogen-sensei," Itachi bows to Jogen and reaches for Sasuke's hand. Sasuke is too tired to stop him and folds his fingers around Itachi's.

They leave quietly.

The walk back to the house is quiet and Sasuke wonders what his mother is going to ask when he gets home. Last time, his first therapy session, Mikoto had gone with him. She'd actually been in the office with him until Jogen had asked if he could describe his assault. She'd had to leave when he got to the part where the man undid his pants.

Sasuke thinks it was cruel of him not to ask his mother to leave before then. Maybe she had remembered the button he'd ripped off the man's pants and planted in his shirt for his mother to find.

Sasuke knew that she'd found it, because he'd seen her give it to his father the next night when Fugaku had come home.

"Otouto?" Itachi asked, breaking their silence.

"Yes?"

"Are you alright?"

"Yes," Sasuke nodded, "I am thinking about what to write in my journal." Sasuke is a very good liar.

"I see. When did you get your journal?"

"Jogen-sensei gave it to me. I'm supposed to write something every day, even if it's only a few words."

"I see," Itachi squeezes Sasuke's hand gently and Sasuke bites his lip. It was still so very strange for him to be around his brother without trying to kill him.

He'd made that mistake already when he'd confused now-Itachi for then-Orochimaru the night the charade begun. He hadn't realised that he would have a flashback to his stay in Oto and he hadn't meant to throw the kunai at Itachi.

It had been Itachi's soft, gentle, caressing voice in a dark room and the brush of long hair across his arm that had reminded him of Orochimaru asking him to come to bed, to strip naked.

He'd resisted only once. He then knew that it hurt far more to resist then to just let the man do what he wanted with him.

"Otouto?" Itachi's voice is so far away and Sasuke wonders when they'd been separated.

"Sasuke, can you hear me?" Itachi sounds worried and Sasuke blinks his eyes.

He finds himself standing in the middle of the road with Itachi kneeling in front of him, hands on his shoulders, worry clear on his face.

"An-Aniki?" Sasuke stutters and realises that his mind had fallen into the past. He shakes his head to clear it.

"Sasuke, are you okay?" Itachi strokes his hands up and down his arms and Sasuke throws himself into his older brother's arms.

_This_ older brother was his protector. _This_ older brother would let anyone hurt him.

_This_ older brother was the one he wanted.

"Nii-tama," He whispers into Itachi's ear and Itachi clutches tightly to him.

"Sasuke-chan, what's wrong?" Itachi is very quiet and Sasuke feels hot drops of water on his shoulder and knows that Itachi is crying again.

Sasuke didn't know why Itachi was crying, but Itachi had said that he was crying because Sasuke wasn't. Sasuke doesn't understand that, but if it made Itachi happy then it was alright.

"I just - what he did, I just remembered what he did again."

"I've got you, Otouto," Itachi tells him, "I'll keep you safe."

Sasuke believes him. Sasuke has always believed his older brother and he isn't about to stop now.

Itachi picks him up when he stands and cuddles him to his chest, utilizing the Body Flicker to finish their trek home. Mikoto meets them at the door. She can see the tears on Itachi's face and seems to know that he's crying for Sasuke.

"Come inside," She grasps Itachi's shoulder and guides him in the door and to the living room.

"Mother," Itachi doesn't let go of Sasuke when she reaches for him, "I'm going to take Sasuke upstairs. He is tired."

Sasuke sometimes worries about how possessive Itachi is of him. He can't see anything wrong with it though, so he doesn't say anything about it.

Sasuke holds tightly onto Itachi as his brother walks up the stairs and takes him to his room.

"Are you tired?" Itachi asks him. Sasuke nods against his neck. His brother sits on the edge of his bed and tries to lay him down. Sasuke refuses to let go. "Sasuke," Itachi strokes his back, "You have to let me go."

"You can't leave." Sasuke doesn't mean to say it, but he finds he doesn't regret it when Itachi kisses the top of his head and nods wearily.

"Okay, Otouto." Itachi lies back on the bed and Sasuke curls up into his torso.

They lay together in Sasuke's bed until Sasuke falls asleep.

*****xxXXxx*****


	9. Interlude: Clans

**Title: **Interlude

**Rating:** M

**Summary: **The Clan leaders need to reassess their thought of the Uchiha now.

**Warnings:** Serious stuff going down here people, get your hanky. Slight Language.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.

**Author Note:** A little something about each of the major clans. I was _forced_ at imaginary kunai point by Roma-chan to see how everyone else is reacting, so yeah. Outsiders prospective.

*****xxXXxx*****

**--Nara--**

Shikaku isn't very surprised when he finds Fugaku on his doorstep, holding Sasuke's hand.

"Nara-san." Fugaku seems pained, "I know this is very inconvenient-"

"Sure we'll watch him." Shikaku interrupts the Uchiha and holds the door open to let the father and son into his house. Fugaku's face doesn't change expression, but Shikaku knows that he is surprised.

Fugaku sighs and lets go of Sasuke's hand. Sasuke hugs Fugaku's legs and then wonders into the house. The Uchiha's have been over once before when Shikaku invited them to a family dinner to start strengthening the Uchiha ties to the rest of Konoha. Sasuke had gotten on well with Shikamaru and knows that Shikamaru enjoys lying on the grass in the backyard watching the clouds.

"Thank you."

"Not a problem." Shikaku leans against the wall, his mouth twisting into a grin, "So why us?"

Fugaku shrugs a shoulder, "Sasuke requested you."

Shikaku raises an eyebrow, "Really?" He murmurs, mostly to himself. That was a surprise. He supposes that Sasuke had _really_ gotten on well with Shikamaru at dinner.

"Yeah. Mikoto is going to be done today around four. Is that alright?"

"Fine, fine." Shikaku sees Fugaku out and turns back into the house, intent on looking for his son and Sasuke.

Yoshino catches him in the kitchen. "Shikaku, what is Sasuke doing here?"

"Just staying until four," He sighed.

She stares at him, "And you didn't think that would be too troublesome huh?" her voice is arch.

Shikaku rolls his eyes. He hasn't told Yoshino about what had happened to Sasuke and he isn't going to. Fugaku is trusts him to be discrete about the things that he's learned. The Uchiha is putting his trust in all of the Council members and he isn't going to be the one to prove that Fugaku's trust is misplaced.

"Da," Shikamaru ambles into the kitchen then, dragging Sasuke by the hand, "Sasuke-kun is being followed."

Shikaku's eyes narrow and he corrals his son and Sasuke behind Yoshino before going outside to see who was following the child.

Itachi Uchiha is crouching in a tree just outside of the clan borders. Shikaku flickers to his side.

"What are you doing?"

"Watching Sasuke." Itachi looks at him with a non-expression and Shikaku sighs.

"Don't you have missions to do or something?" He asks as he folds his arms over his chest.

Itachi's mouth twitches downwards for a moment then he shakes his head, "Sasuke is more important."

"Listen, Itachi-kun, I'm jounin. So is Yoshino. Sasuke will be fine here."

Shikaku expects Itachi to argue with him so when Itachi stands and gives him a bow he's a bit shocked. "Thank you."

"So, what? I just had to assure you that we'd look after him?"

"The Nara are a powerful clan of people," Itachi says. "And a trustworthy people." He bows again and flickers away.

Shikaku shakes his head and mutters under his breath, "Troublesome." He goes back inside and waves a hand lazily at his wife and the two boys, "Its fine. Itachi-kun was just checking up on Sasuke-kun."

Shikamaru rolls his eyes in a manner that tells Shikaku that his son has been taking his cues from him and starts dragging Sasuke back to the door to go outside, "Troublesome," He mutters.

Yoshino looks likes she's only just holding back her laughter at her son. As soon as Sasuke and Shikamaru are out the door she turns to him, "Why would you be worrying about someone following Sasuke-kun?" She knows him well and his unusually quick and decisive response to Shikamaru's words means something important is going on. Shikaku is reminded of why he married her. She's smart and intelligent and intuitive.

And damned troublesome. He really kind of likes that part of his wife though, to her eternal amusement.

"There have been some threats. The Uchiha are an important clan."

Yoshino sighs, "Like the Hyuga?" She questions and Shikaku nods. It's not an outright lie, but even if it was, his wife would forgive him when she found the truth. They're ninja after all and deception is in their blood.

**--Yamanaka--**

Inoichi has seen a lot of shit in his life and line of work. Finding out that Fugaku Uchiha's youngest son has been raped is startling for him anyway. It happened inside of Konoha walls. He thinks that the next time someone with ties to Konoha comes through the T&I department he's going to be just a little bit harder on them. Mostly because he's pissed off and he has a daughter.

"Inoichi-san." Ibiki Morino looks over Inoichi's shoulder and Inoichi glances up at his second in command.

"Ibiki-san." Ibiki is a very good interrogator and he can hold his information as well. The scars on his face and head is proof of that.

"What is wrong?" Ibiki is also frighteningly attentive to him. It's not that Ibiki has aspirations on him, but he does care for his boss and he is the nosiest little bastard that Inoichi knows; even compared to his daughter, who is quickly becoming the gossip queen of Konoha despite being only five.

It still amazes Inoichi that his daughter took after him so much. Ino can get information out of anyone she wants, including her mother, who can resist Inoichi's attempts to get information from her.

"Civilian issues," Inoichi waves it off, "Nothing to do with us."

"At least," Ibiki growls low in his throat, "Not yet."

"Classified, Ibiki-san," Inoichi isn't above using that term to help Sasuke-kun keep his privacy.

"Hn." Ibiki leans back then and stares at the back of Inoichi's head. Inoichi ignores him. There is work to do in the department and it needs to be done.

"Have you briefed ANBU on their next mission?" Inoichi asks absently as he organizes the documents and reports on his desk. It's almost time for him to be heading home and having Ibiki standing behind him and staring at him is not helping his concentration.

He's trained Ibiki well.

Ibiki snorts, "Dumb shits are afraid of me," He growls in his deep voice, "But they're on watch." Even if Inoichi didn't want to betray Fugaku's trust, he still needs the ANBU to watch more closely for any similar situations.

Ibiki already told him that he is getting soft in his married life. Inoichi doesn't think Ibiki will never get married or have kids.

He could be wrong though, because he's seen the way a certain blue headed kunoichi is always looking at his second in command and he finds himself uncomfortable knowing that Orochimaru's apprentice has the hots for Ibiki Morino of all people.

Maybe Anko got off on the pain.

Inoichi shakes his head to clear it. The ability to get into people's heads, with or without his family technique, is sometimes a curse. He doesn't want to know more than half the things he knows about his comrades and tries hard to ignore the stray information, because he can't allow himself to forget it. It could be useful in the future.

"Good." Inoichi finally gives up on the paperwork, "Damn it."

"Inoichi-san?" Ibiki asks him. Inoichi growls.

"I need a goddamn paperwork ninja down here for all this shit." Unfortunately for the T&I department, the Hokage uses every paperwork ninja in the missions office. Inoichi sometimes borrows one, but it's hard to keep them for long even if they do technically have the clearance for T&I. Inoichi hasn't found one yet that can handle more than a week in Head Quarters without breaking in horribly fascinating ways.

He absently remembers that one paperwork ninja who actually called Ibiki a stuck up prick with bad facial scars. That had been a great day. Funniest he can remember in a long time.

"You broke the last one Sandaime-sama lent you," Ibiki says idly and Inoichi nods.

"I know. It was great to watch though." Ibiki agrees but doesn't say anything out loud.

There is a knock at the door of Inoichi's office and Ibiki flashes across the room to open the door and loom menacingly over the person who dares to disturb their leader.

"Get the hell out of my way, you behemoth," Romanaki shoves Ibiki out of her way and strolls into the office. "Why the hell are you still here?" Her eye is twitching and Inoichi smirks.

"I love you too, Roma-chan," He purrs at her, "And I'm just finishing up."

"Good. I don't want to make dinner tonight. Make sure you pick Ino-chan up from Sakura-chan's house and meet me at that new barbeque place Chouza opened up last week. I made reservations yesterday."

"Yes, darling," Inoichi admires his wife's backside as she stalks from the room and Ibiki smirks at him.

"Whipped, much?"

"Just you wait," Inoichi mutters, "One day you'll find yourself at the end of the chain your wife is pulling and you won't even notice as it gets shorter and shorter." Inoichi loves his wife, he really does. He just wishes sometimes that they didn't work in the same department.

**--Akimichi--**

Chouza was glad to see Inoichi earlier in the evening. They'd nodded hello to each other as Inoichi passed by the kitchen of the new restaurant and Chouza had been on the team long enough to know that Inoichi wants to talk to him tomorrow.

He ambles through his front door and finds his son sleeping on the couch with Shikamaru. He looks at his wife and she smiles. "Yoshino-chan wanted a night with only one lazy man in the house."

Chouza chuckles and removes his sandals at the door and enters the living room to kiss his wife. She gladly accepts the kiss and then pushes him towards the stairs.

"Go have a shower Chouza," She says playfully.

"I'd ask you to join me..." Chouza trails off with a grin and looks over to the boys.

"Maybe tomorrow Yoshino-chan will take Chouji for us," She smirks at him and he kisses her again before going up the steps.

He strips out of his barbeque smelling clothing and has a quick shower just to wash himself down. He dresses in hakama and a casual yakuta and goes back down stairs.

Chouza knows that he isn't as smart as Shikaku, hell, he can't think of anyone smarter than Shikaku, and he also knows that he isn't as intuitive as Inoichi, not that many could beat the blond in that area, but he knows that he is the heart and strength for his team. They haven't been a real 'team' per say in years, but he knows that Inoichi wants to have someone that he can rage at about the injustice done to Sasuke Uchiha and not worry about insulting.

He also knows that Shikaku will probably come to see him as well, soon enough.

Musume has made him a light pre-supper and he picks at it half-heartily.

"Chouza?" She asks, concern on her face. Chouza looks over to her from where he had been watching the boys. "What's wrong?" Chouza has always been good at hiding things, but his wife is just too damn good at seeing through him.

He sighs and looks back to the boys. "I've been hearing some disturbing things from the civilian sectors."

She comes around the table and places her hands on his broad shoulders, "Disturbing enough to stop you from eating, my Love?"

Relaxing into his wife's gentle massage Chouza nods, "A bit, yes." He watches Chouji shift in his sleep and Shikamaru curls an arm around him tightly to keep from falling off the couch.

"Am I allowed to ask what you've been hearing?" Musume keeps in fairly close contact with Yoshino and Romanaki. Chouza was worried when they first married that she spoke with them only because Chouza was always with his teammates, but has since learned that she genuinely likes the wives of his team.

"Have I told you that I love you lately?"

Musume's hands pause on his shoulders and she leans down to kiss the top of his head. "I love you too, Chouza."

She doesn't ask again. Chouza is profoundly grateful for her discretion.

An hour later it's time for dinner, so Chouza goes into the living room and wakes the boys up. It hurts his heart to think about what atrocities have been carried out on Sasuke when they boys look up at him from the couch with and he notices that Shikamaru 's eyes are just a little dark.

Shikamaru is the only child of the Ino-Shika-Chou trio that has met Sasuke so far, and Chouza thinks that if just meeting the Uchiha boy will dull Shikamaru's eyes, he isn't sure he wants the boy around Chouji. He knows that sounds horrible, but he wants to protect his son's innocence for as long as possible.

"Supper time, boys," Chouza tells them. Chouji jumps up with a cry of joy, hugs his father and races to the kitchen. Shikamaru is still lying on the couch.

"Uncle Chouza?"

"Yes Shikamaru-kun?" Chouza responds kindly. He loves Shikamaru and Ino almost as much as he loves Chouji.

"Something bad happened to Sasuke-kun, didn't it?"

Chouza blinks. Right, he remembers, this is Shikaku's child. Of course he would notice. "I can't tell you, Shikamaru. Have you asked Sasuke-kun?"

"I don't want to hurt him..." Shikamaru finally sits up, "He's jumpy. I saw a dog once. It was homeless. Jumped at anyone that passed it. I think it was hurt lots." Shikamaru closes his eyes, "Sasuke-kun is like that."

"I still can't tell you, Shikamaru," Chouza sighs, "Just... be careful around Sasuke-kun okay? Your father said that Sasuke-kun likes you."

"Because I don't move," Shikamaru stands and Chouza pulls him into a hug.

"Just keep doing that, okay? Just keep staying still. Sasuke-kun might confide in you when he learns to trust you."

"Okay," Shikamaru climbs into Chouza's arms, "Carry me?"

"You are so lazy," Chouza laughs as he lifts Shikamaru up, "If I didn't know that you inherited it from your father I'd get Yoshino-chan to get you tested for a thyroid disorder."

"Bah," Shikamaru's head rolls against Chouza's shoulder. Chouza laughs again and carries Shikamaru to the table.

**--Inuzuka--**

Tsume sprawls over the leaf-covered ground in the clearing next to Kuromaru. Not usually quiet or stationary, Kuromaru barks a question at her and she sighs.

"You know the Uchiha," She answers her ninken, "Stuck up bastards." She hums under her breath and rolls her eyes, "I wouldn't have anything to do with them if it wasn't for Sasuke-kun."

The Inuzuka have hated the Uchiha since before the Village was erected. There is something about the Uchiha's that just smell wrong to the animalist clan and their companions; something dark, something corrupt.

She feels a presence in the trees above her and languidly throws an arm over Kuromaru to lift herself up so she can see over the ninken's large body.

Kakashi Hatake drops from where he was hanging on a branch and lands silently. "Inuzuka-sama."

"Kakashi-san. What's up?" Tsume has always liked the white headed little bastard. She's seen the way he treats his ninken summons and it's better than most people treat regular pets.

He's quiet for a moment, and then drops into a crossed legged lounge about four feet in front of her. "The Uchiha are coming out of their compound." He says it like it's no big deal.

It is. It is a very big deal. Tsume remembers that he used to have a teammate who was Uchiha. She remembers Kakashi without the tilted hitai-ite and smiles and lateness. She remembers a brunet boy who used to wear orange goggles and laugh constantly and was never on time.

She figures that his covered eye once rested behind those old orange goggles.

"Yep. Fugaku-san is pretty uptight, but stuff's happening." She rolls onto her back and Kuromaru shuffs at her. "Oh shut it you big puppy." She tells him and swats him lightly.

"Uchiha-sama has been having family meals with the other clans," Kakashi raises an eyebrow, "But not with your clan."

"Bah," Tsume snorts, "He doesn't think we have a table. Probably thinks we hunt with our ninken and eat the meat uncooked on the ground."

Kakashi looks at her sardonically, "You don't seem to be fighting that impression."

"Don't want him at my table," Tsume retorts. Maybe once he lightens up she'll invite him and his family over for a meal, but she doesn't break bread with people she doesn't trust.

Sasuke, on the other hand, is always welcome over. She's heard that animals like dogs can help traumatized kids.

She growls as she thinks about it. Everyone hates child molesters, but the Inuzuka do everything in extreme ways. She wants to go dig up the body of the man that hurt Sasuke and get every single clan member, dog and human, to piss on it. Desecrate it.

Kuromaru's hackles rise under her and she looks to Kakashi. He is completely still and Tsume realises that she's letting out her killing intent. She tempers her rage and Kakashi starts breathing again.

"May I know why the Uchiha are suddenly playing nice with the other clans?"

Technically Kakashi was a member of a clan; the Hatake clan. Anyone with a bloodline limit was a part of a clan, but with only himself claiming the bloodline, Kakashi was left out of the Council. The Council was for clans big enough to need leadership.

"No." she tells him bluntly.

He's silent and she knows that he understands.

"Thank you for your time Inuzuka-sama."

"Fuck that '-sama' shit," She curses, "It's Tsume-san." Tsume hugs Kuromaru and waves Kakashi off, "Get the hell outta here, you brat." He may be eighteen, but he'll always been fifteen years younger than her.

"Tsume-san," His voice carries a note of laughter and then he's gone.

Tsume buries her face in Kuromaru's thick fur. She stays there, lying on her ninken until Hana finds her.

"Ma?"

"Hana-chan," Tsume stands up and makes her way over to her daughter. Kuromaru gets up and lumbers after her.

"Uh, there's an Uchiha at the gates." Hana hugs her back when Tsume grabs her up in a tight hold.

"Which one?"

"I don't know," Hana almost pouts.

"Come on girl," Tsume ruffles her hair and barks out a laugh, "You're genin; you know how to make a report."

"Yeah, yeah," They head back to the main buildings of the clan. Tsume and Kuromaru are greeted with a bark or a yell by every clan member they pass. Tsume grins widely, showing off her teeth.

Tsume didn't get to be clan leader because she inherited the position; she got it because she beat the asses of everyone else competing for Alpha.

The first thing that Tsume notices are the two children brawling at the gate. The second thing she notices is that Kiba is one of the kids.

The third thing that she notices is that the other kid is Sasuke Uchiha.

"Kiba." She barks out the command and Kiba looks at her from the headlock that he is in.

"Ma!" He's excited to see her and she's a little confused. She doesn't know why he isn't mad. Kiba hates losing; which, from what she can see, he is in the middle of doing.

"Why are you fighting?" She grabs the scruff of his neck and gives him a tiny shake.

Kiba looks up at her through adoring eyes.

"Ma, I made a friend!" He points at Sasuke and growls at him playfully. To Tsume's surprise, Sasuke growls back.

"Yeah, yeah, I see that." Tsume draws Kiba up to her face and breaths in his scent before letting go of him, "Go play with the new puppies Kiba," She tells him and he whines at her. Tsume isn't about to fall for that; she's had to deal with Hana and her three Haimaru Brothers. "Go Kiba."

"Alright," Kiba pouts, his face scrunching up, distorting his tiny red facial tattoos, and wonders down the path into the compound to the nursery. He looks over his shoulder as he goes and bares his teeth at Sasuke.

Sasuke scoffs under his breath and, to Tsume's amazement, barks a reprimand at him.

"And you," She points a finger at Sasuke, "Don't be talking in a language you don't know." Sasuke bows his head in chastisement.

"I apologise, Inuzuka-san."

"Whatever," She rolls her eyes, "Now, Sasuke-kun, can I ask why you're here?"

Sasuke opens his mouth to say something then closes it, looking away.

"Sasuke?" Hana interrupts, "As in: Uchiha-san's kid?" No one in the Inuzuka clan uses '-sama' unless they're talking about Tsume or the Hokage. She is their only Alpha and he is the only one Tsume bows to.

Sasuke nods, "Yes." He pauses and looks back at Tsume.

She can tell that he wants to say something but is embarrassed by it. "Spit it out, Pup."

His voice is very small and even with her extraordinary hearing she can barely make it out, "Can I play with your ninken?"

"Sure," Tsume smiles at Sasuke, keeping her teeth covered, "Don't see a problem with that." She points down the road Kiba went down, "Just follow Kiba. He's hiding at behind the building at the second left." She reaches out to ruffle his hair like she does with all children and he flinches back from her.

She stays her hand, but doesn't apologise.

Sasuke takes a few measured steps away from her towards where she said Kiba is hiding and then bolts down the road as fast as he can.

"You can come out now," Tsume calls out as she watches Sasuke tackle Kiba and wrestle him to the ground before jumping up and pulling him around the corner.

A boy in a chuunin vest slips out of hiding and comes up to her. Hana looks shocked that a boy younger than her by three years has a higher rank.

"Thank you, Inuzuka-san." He murmurs to her and she shakes her head.

"Nothing to it. We'll watch your brother for you, Itachi-kun."

Itachi nods to her and then flickers away.

Tsume isn't surprised by his appearance. Shikaku had mentioned that the boy was following his brother with the intent to protect him. She wonders if he'll take the same care with Sasuke's friends and then thinks that is a stupid thing to wonder. Itachi has proven to be quite fanatical about protecting Sasuke and she knows that he'll protect anyone Sasuke likes, to keep him happy.

Perhaps she would encourage Kiba to keep this new friend of his.

**--Aburame--**

Shibi rarely takes Shino to the public parks. Most people aren't comfortable around the Aburame family and he doesn't want to drive other families from the parks just to let his son play. Though when he thinks about it, his son mostly plays in the bushes and collects bugs.

He can do that at home just as easily.

But this time he and Shino have been invited to a 'playdate' with Sasuke and Itachi, so he bundles Shino up in his tiny version of the family trademark coat and places his sunglasses on his face. Shino bunches up his nose in distaste, but doesn't take them off.

Civilians don't know that the sunglasses aren't see-through. The Aburame have no need for glasses with see-through glass. They don't have eyes in the first place.

Itachi told Shibi that they would like to go to Maple Park, so Shibi takes Shino's hand and flickers to the edges of Maple. He immediately senses Itachi and turns to see him pushing Sasuke on a swing.

"Shino, do you remember what I told you?"

"If I lose my glasses, close my eyes." Shino says by route. Shibi tells Shino that every time they leave the Aburame compound. It bothers even other ninja to see children with kikaichū crawling in and out of their empty eye sockets.

Shino is new at blindness. It was on his fifth birthday just three months ago that he was given over to the kikaichū to change. Every Aburame goes through the change on their fifth birthday. Shibi had been teaching Shino since he was four how to do things without eyes, to replace 'seeing' with 'sensing' using his small colony of kikaichū instead.

"Very good." Shibi sends out a female kikaichū and directs it to Sasuke's shoulder. Sasuke turns to inspect it. "Have a worker follow the female. That is Sasuke Uchiha."

"I see." Shino walks with his father towards the two Uchiha's.

Shino and Sasuke get along well, Shibi thinks as he watches them sitting in the bushes, pulling out different bugs and placing them in each other's hands. And hair. It seems like Shino is excited to be playing with someone outside of the clan because he keeps tossing beetles and spiders in Sasuke's dark hair.

Shibi is just glad that Shino hasn't called the Brown Recluse spider from her web fifteen feet away from them in an abandoned cardboard box.

"What's this?" He hears Sasuke ask as he drops some kind of bug into Shino's hands. Shino thinks for a moment before answering and Sasuke then drops another bug into Shino's waiting hands.

"How long have they been playing with the bugs?" Tsume appears beside Shibi and Shibi quirks a smile at her.

"Twenty-three minutes."

"... Your kid is strange Shibi-san." She mutters. She pushes her son towards the two quietly talking boys. "Go play with your new friend, Kiba."

"Yay!" Kiba bolts into the bushes, crashing into Sasuke and bowling him over. Sasuke twists and wiggles, managing to get out of Kiba's hold without hurting the Inuzuka.

"Why are you here?" Shibi asks Tsume. She laughs and whaps him on the shoulder companionably.

"I heard from a little birdy that you brought your kid out of the Aburame compound. That's an unusual event, so I thought I'd check it out." She laughs again and both parents pause when Kiba cries out.

They turn to see Sasuke taking Shino's sunglasses from Kiba and holding them out to Shino. "Sorry, Shino. Kiba isn't housebroken yet."

"Err," Shino ducks his head, embarrassed.

Kiba stares at Shino in horror, "You have no eyeballs!"

"No. I don't." Shino's voice lowers more and Shibi is about to go collect Shino before he can be hurt by an unthinking child.

"Leave him alone, Kiba," Sasuke tells the tattooed boy and Kiba looks at Sasuke. Sasuke glares and Kiba backs down.

Kiba hunches his shoulders and then rolls his eyes, "Fine." He glances at Shino again. "You don't have no eyeballs," he tells Shino in a matter of fact voice. "I don't like it." He heaves a sigh, "But Sasuke says you're okay. So. Well. We'll be okay then."

"Shino," Sasuke reaches out and touches Shino's face. Shino turns his face towards Sasuke, "You have a spider escaping from your left eye."

"Oh!" Shino exclaims and claps a hand over his eye. "I'm sorry. I just got a new colony three months ago. Sometimes they don't listen too good."

Shibi is pleased that Sasuke is taking it calmly. He's never seen someone outside of the family react so calmly to an Aburame without their sunglasses. It's usually even harder on those that come from a family with a dōjutsu because they are so proud of the power their eyes hold.

Sasuke is a pleasant surprise for Shibi.

Tsume casts a glance in Shibi's direction and Shibi shrugs his shoulders. She's seen him without his glasses once or twice and it has always disturbed her though she tries not to show it.

"He's a good kid." She says finally.

"Yes, he is." Shibi agrees. There isn't anything else for either of them to say.

**--Hyuga--**

Hiashi watches Neji and Sasuke sparring in one of the Hyuga training buildings from the covered balcony above the arena area. There are seals that disallow the Byakugan to see through all the doors and walls. The seals are a clan secret. No one in the family wants an outsider to find out that there is a way around their eyes.

Hiashi was shocked when Fugaku came forward to the Council. As the head of the Police he could have dealt with the situation on his own, but he'd stepped forward and because of that, Hiashi was willing to try and get along with the Uchiha.

They were distantly related after all.

Very distantly.

Neji's surprised exclamation draws Hiashi's attention back to the spar and he sees Sasuke standing on the side of the arena wall using chakra, looking down at Neji struggling back to his feet.

Hiashi had heard that Sasuke has had contact with Shikamaru Nara, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame. He's also heard that Sasuke was the one who'd started the sharing of clan children. Hiashi had never hosted other clan children in his compound, but in the last two weeks he's had six Uchiha children, four Nara children, two Yamanaka children and two Aburame children between the ages of three and ten in his house.

Normally Hiashi would refuse to allow such a thing from happening, but after only one meal with Fugaku and his family, Hinata had perked up and her stuttering had reduced.

Hiashi figures that if it would help his eldest daughter, who is he to refuse it? For all his exulted status, Hiashi is still a father who loves his children.

"Yield," Neji calls out and Hiashi sees Sasuke slip the senbon back into his weapons pouch.

The boy was a prodigy at weapons and warfare. As good as Neji is, Sasuke has him beat on all tiers of fighting.

Hiashi claps and both boys look up to see him. Neji looks surprised. Sasuke does not.

"Very well done." Hiashi gestures that Sasuke can leave to clean up and he does so. Hiashi flickers to Neji's side.

"I'm proud. You did very well."

"Thank you, Uncle." Neji stares at the ground.

Hiashi feels a tug at his heart and he sighs. Neji looks exactly like Hizashi did at that age, and it sometimes hurts to see the twin brother who died for him in his nephew. "Your father would be proud."

Neji's eyes widen and he blanches. Hiashi hasn't talked about Hizashi since the man's death.

"Uncle?" Neji asks, sounding confused. Hiashi wishes desperately to pull the boy into his arms and hug him.

He can't. Hiashi had been raised that the only time he was allowed to touch someone he is either to be killing them, and he doesn't even have to touch them to do that, or procreating. No matter how hard he tries, he can't overcome a lifetime of conditioning.

Neji reaches out to him and Hiashi shifts a minuscule amount so his nephew can't come in contact with him. Neji stiffens and backs away.

Hiashi bows his head no more than an inch. "I am sorry." He's never before said those words to Neji regarding his father.

Neji bows at the waist and a sorrowful smile is on his face. "I understand, Uncle."

And Hiashi can see that he does understand.

Sasuke comes out of the locker rooms, once more dressed in his tan shorts and blue Uchiha shirt. "Hiashi-san?"

"Please get cleaned up, Neji. I will walk with Sasuke back to the house." Hiashi shoos Neji to the locker room and Sasuke follows him from the arena.

Sasuke waits until Neji is out of hearing range. "I saw you."

"I know."

"Why were you watching? You know how well Neji-san fights." Sasuke tilts his head to the side, "You have also seen me spar before."

"I was curious to see how you preformed against each other." Hiashi is telling the truth. Most of the truth anyway.

"You were watching me."

"Yes." He was watching Sasuke. Hiashi was also watching Itachi watch Sasuke. "When did you sense me on the balcony?"

Sasuke scoffs, "I knew the moment you came in the back door."

"I see." Hiashi wants to know if Sasuke knows his brother is watching him, but doesn't want to expose Itachi.

"And yes," Sasuke shakes his head while he rolls his eyes, "I know that Itachi is watching me." Sasuke smirks, "No offence meant, Hiashi-san, but you are Hyuga. Uchiha don't trust Hyuga." His voice lowers and Hiashi is surprised to hear a tinge of humour, "If you hurt me, he will exact revenge."

Hiashi doesn't know why Sasuke finds that funny, but doesn't question him about it. Hiashi knows of Itachi Uchiha and that if it came to a fight, Itachi would be a hard opponent to win against.

Neji joins them then and they continue on to the main house. Hiashi waits until they are inside before flickering to Itachi.

"Are we going to have a problem?" He asks lightly.

Itachi blinks at him. "I am protecting Sasuke. If you do not harm him, we will not have a problem."

"I see." Hiashi might have ninja paranoia, but he has no problem with Itachi only taking a proactive approach to the protection of his brother. Threats were always a proactive approach among ninja.

Hiashi had watched Fugaku drop Sasuke off with Hitomi and had seen them hugging. He wondered how it would feel to hug a member of his family. "Do you initiate physical contact with your parents, Itachi-san?"

"I do. My mother hugs me every morning and my father has become more approachable since the incident." Itachi looks up at him, "Why do you ask?"

"No reason." Hiashi dismisses Itachi and flickers back to his house.

"Fa-father?" Hinata greets him at the door and Hiashi summons his best smile to date.

"Yes, Hinata-chan?"

"Mother would like to sp-speak with you." Hinata blushes and Hiashi nods to her. She leaves quickly and he watches her go.

It takes every ounce of control he has to not call out to her. If he called out to her she would expect something from him, and he knows that no matter how much he wants to, he will never hug her.

*****xxXXxx*****


	10. Recount

**Title: **Recount

**Rating: **M

**Summary: **Itachi is there for his brother when he has to recount what happened to the judge.

**Warnings:** Serious stuff going down here people, get your hanky. **Strong Language, angst, drama, blood, description of rape.**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.

**Author Note:** Yeah, no. Nothing to say. It's sad and angsty and Roma-chan is still egging me on.

*****xxXXxx*****

The judge's quarters feel cold, even though they aren't. Itachi watches as everyone gets settled. He doesn't like how so many people are going to listen to Sasuke recount the horrifying event that he's been through.

There is the judge who is sitting across from Sasuke in front of his desk; his parents are sitting on the settee by the wall. Jogen is in the room, as is Jiro, and Bengoshi Uchiha, the Uchiha lawyer. The court reporter is sitting in the corner of the room with a scroll and paint. Itachi is standing behind Sasuke within reaching distance.

He is going to be here for his brother no matter what.

Itachi has researched everyone in the room that he doesn't know personally and knows that the court reporter, Ami Haname, is discrete and that she has never mentioned any of her cases to another soul, living or dead. The lawyer is an Uchiha himself and is there only to make sure that nothing goes against the law. The judge is the eldest person in the room and he has several child cases in his file. Isao Hanji has seen this sort of thing before, but never dealt with the child of a ninja clan, so Itachi isn't sure how he's going to react when Sasuke gets to the part where he killed the man.

"Sasuke-kun," Hanji starts, "If you need to stop at any time, don't be afraid to. If you need a break or if it becomes too much for you emotionally, mentally or physically, just let us know and we can break the meeting for however long you need. Do you understand?"

Sasuke nods and Itachi wants to reach out and grab his shoulders to lend him strength.

"Can you start from when you were in the park?" Hanji asks.

"Yes, Sir." Sasuke is calm and Itachi swallows quietly. He has heard a disjointed rendition of the attack and he is displeased to have his brother relate it again.

"Whenever you're ready, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke sits in his chair silently for several moments. Itachi can't help but reach out and brush his hand over his shoulders. Sasuke straightens.

"I went to the park with five other Uchiha children." Hanji looks a little surprised at how articulate Sasuke is, but he was warned that Sasuke is a genius. "I was practicing my chakra control on one of the trees."

"What kind of exercise is chakra control?" Hanji asks.

"Walking up a tree. I am not very good yet and can only reach the six foot mark." Sasuke glances to their parents and then continues, "I became tired and was resting under the tree I was practicing on."

Itachi can see a vision of Sasuke in his mind's eye and ruthlessly quashes it. He does not want to imagine what Sasuke has been through.

"A man showed up. He started talking to me. He was..." Sasuke paused then kept going, "He was kind. At first."

Itachi curbs a growl in his throat.

"He had a bottle of water with him. I was very thirsty." Sasuke's voice drops with shame, "I drank some. Just a sip. Only a sip." He looks at their parents as though trying to make them believe him.

"It's okay, Sasuke-chan," Their mother tells him, "It's okay."

Sasuke looks down at his hands, "He offered me more water but I didn't want any more. He really wanted me to have more and I didn't want to refuse outright so I only pretended to drink more."

Itachi thinks that he will have to pray to the ancestors in thanks. Jiro had tested the water bottle that had been found in the bloody motel room and found that it contained a sedative. If Sasuke had drunk more than the sip he had, he would not have been aware that he was in danger and he would not have had the ability to fight back and kill the man.

Sasuke stops speaking and looks out the window of the judge's office. He clearly does not want to continue and Itachi takes a few steps around the chair to kneel beside him. He takes Sasuke's hand in his own and Sasuke squeezes his fingers.

"He said that he had seen me walking on the tree and asked if I was going to be a ninja." Sasuke doesn't look away from Itachi's eyes, "I told him that I was going to start at the Academy soon. He smiled at me; told me that his sister was a ninja. He told me that I was far ahead of anyone else he'd seen who was my age. I was so proud." Sasuke chuckled weakly, "I was proud and I believed him."

"Sasuke," Itachi rested his cheek on his little brother's knee, "You have a right to be proud."

"He asked me if I wanted to meet his sister." Sasuke shuddered under Itachi's cheek and started to pet his hair with his free hand. "He told me that she sometimes helped out at the Academy when a substitute was needed, and that she would probably like to meet me. I asked him if she'd be willing to help me learn to throw senbon. I can throw kunai and shuriken, but I've never been taught how to throw senbon."

His heart jumps to his throat and Itachi clutches at Sasuke's legs. Sasuke had asked Itachi to help teach him how to throw senbon a week before the attack and Itachi had told him that he would teach him another day; said that he was too busy to help his brother.

Sasuke continues to pet his hair. "He said she could at least give me a few hints. So I followed him out of the park."

Mikoto begins to cry softly. She hasn't heard very much about what happened like Itachi and didn't see the crime scene like Fugaku had. Fugaku pulls her into a hug.

"He took me to the motel," Sasuke says. His voice is growing quieter and Ami has to lean forward to hear him so she can record what he is saying. "Said that his sister was staying there. I couldn't concentrate. I knew something wasn't right though, because I was very tired. More tired than I had been when I stopped to rest."

Sasuke stops again and Itachi holds his hand tightly.

"I don't want to..." Sasuke mutters, digging his fingers into Itachi's hair. Itachi doesn't notice the pain.

"Do you want to stop for a bit, Sasuke-kun?" Hanji asks quietly. Sasuke nods.

Itachi can see that Sasuke still isn't crying. He thinks that if he could, he would take Sasuke's pain, would change places with Sasuke in a heartbeat.

Several minutes later Sasuke looks up from Itachi, "He took me into the room. It was dark. I remember that I couldn't see the bed. He took my hand and started to walk me forward. His long hair brushed over my arm when he leaned down and put a hand on my waist. He asked me to come to bed."

Sasuke has gone completely blank. Itachi can't see a single emotion or feeling in his eyes. "Otouto," He whispers to his brother but Sasuke doesn't even look at him.

"I didn't want to. I tried to pull away but I was so tired. He grabbed me really tight and pulled me and I couldn't get out of his hands." Sasuke's voice is drifting like leaves on the wind, "His hands were so big and he picked me up and lay me on the bed. I tried to fight, tried to get up. He undressed me, took my shirt and pants off. He kept running his hands over my body." Sasuke blinks. "I didn't know what was happening. I couldn't see and I was so _scared_ because I didn't understand what he was doing. My sharingan activated. And then I could see him in the dark. I could see him take his shirt off and undo his pants."

Itachi reached up and drew Sasuke's face in his direction, "Otouto, you're not there. You are here, you are with me. You are safe." Sasuke blinks again and shakes his head, finally seeing Itachi and not locked in the memory he would always carry.

"Thank you, Aniki." Sasuke leans down and kisses the corner of his eye. He looks over to their parents and smiles sadly at them. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Sasuke-kun," Fugaku's knuckles are bone white in Mikoto's hold.

Sasuke turns back to Hanji and sighs, "He climbed onto the bed. Pulled my legs apart." Sasuke grimaced, "He held me so tight, I got so many bruises."

"Sasuke, are you alright?" Jogen speaks up from where he is sitting by the door.

Sasuke shakes his head, "No."

Itachi clings to Sasuke's legs, "Otouto, we can stop. We don't need to keep going."

"I need to," Sasuke tells him and looks directly at the judge, "He talked the whole time." Sasuke withdraws his hands from Itachi, "While he... When he was- when he was inside me. When he was _raping_ me. He told me about what he'd done to other children. He liked blonds the best. He told me that it was easiest to get the kids that were new to the streets. He gets them before they learn not to trust anyone. They accept his food and water and sometimes they drink so much water that they don't even know something has happened until they wake up bleeding and hurt and not where they were before."

Sasuke brings his legs up into the chair and curls them under his body. Itachi doesn't reach after him.

"Other children?" Hanji frowns, "He told you about others?"

"He recounted his victims to me the entire time," Sasuke tells him, "Some of them never woke up. He liked to watch them after he was done with them. Watch them wake up and find out that they'd been hurt."

Itachi can feel the rising killer intent in Sasuke.

"I got so mad." Sasuke's eyes narrow and his breathing quicken, "He hurt kids. He was hurting _me_. He had a knife in his pants pocket. It wasn't hard for me to get a hold of when he closed his eyes and groaned. I flicked it open and I..." Sasuke's face blanches, "I stabbed him. I stabbed him in the eye. _I was so mad_."

Itachi wants to touch Sasuke, wants to hold him and comfort him, tell him that it's over, tell him that he doesn't have to worry about that man ever again. Sasuke won't let him though; his killing intent is all but screaming that the first person to touch him will be a dead man.

Hanji isn't looking like he disapproves of Sasuke's action. "What happened after you stabbed him, Sasuke-kun?"

"He sort of fell off me. I pushed at him until he was out and then rolled him onto his back." Sasuke's eyes close as he recounts this part, "I sat on his stomach and I stabbed him. Again and again and again. I stabbed his face and I stabbed his chest and I was crying so much I could hardly see."

Sasuke is done, Itachi could see it. He doesn't want to say anything else.

Hanji leaned back in his chair, "I'm very sorry that you experienced such a horrible thing, Sasuke-kun." He glances at the lawyer, "There are a few questions I'd like to ask you, if Uchiha-san doesn't object."

Bengoshi nods, "He can't be charged for it."

Hanji looks back to Sasuke, "Why did you castrate the man?"

"He _hurt_ me," Sasuke snarls, eyes twisting into a six point red star. A single tear of blood tracks down his cheek, "I was never going to let him hurt me again. Not ever."

"Why did you put his penis into his mouth?"

"I wanted him to know what it felt like," Sasuke's lip draws up in a sneer, "I wanted him to know how it felt to be violated."

"I see," Hanji tries not to stare in awe at Sasuke's Sharingan, but it's hard; he is a civilian and he's never seen the clan Uchiha bloodline before.

Itachi stands up and steps into Sasuke's view. Sasuke tracks him automatically. "You have the Mangekyō activated, Otouto."

Sasuke tenses. Itachi doesn't touch him.

"He got what he deserved," Sasuke hisses at him and Itachi closes his eyes.

"I am not arguing, Otouto." Itachi holds his hand out to Sasuke, palm up, "You are very angry right now."

"Damn _fucking_ right I am," Sasuke screams, "I am!"

"Sasuke," Itachi murmurs, shocked. He'd never heard Sasuke swear before and he feels astonished.

"No! I am angry! I was hurt and now you all want me to relive it as though I don't dream of it every night! I can see him over me and I wanted him to stop! I just wanted him to stop!" Sasuke breaks. Tears fall and Itachi can't stand to see the blood running down his little brother's face from his sharingan eyes.

But Itachi doesn't touch him. Itachi can't touch him. Not now.

Sasuke is sobbing, rocking in his chair, arms around his chest, "I want him to stop, I want him to stop," He repeats, gasping for air.

"Sasuke," Itachi kneels down in front of Sasuke, "Sasuke, I'm here." He can't say anything else. He can't tell Sasuke that he'll stop the man, because the man is dead. He can't say he'll stop the nightmares or the memories, because he can't. The only thing he can do is wait for Sasuke to reach out to him.

Mikoto is crying into Fugaku's arms and Jiro has gone white. Hanji, Ami, and Bengoshi aren't looking at Itachi and Sasuke.

Sasuke is still crying.

"Sasuke," Itachi whispers and holds out his hands again.

"Nii-tama," Sasuke throws himself into Itachi's arms, smearing blood over Itachi's shoulder and chest as he grips his older brother tightly.

Itachi folds his arms around Sasuke and cries with him.

He notices, but doesn't care when all the adults leave the room. He has Sasuke. Sasuke has him. They are safe.

*****xxXXxx*****


	11. Naruto

**Title: **Naruto

**Rating: **T

**Summary: **Sasuke talks with Naruto and finds out some things that he doesn't really want to know.

**Warnings:** Serious stuff going down here people, get your hanky

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.

**Author Note:** I started this hoping to move into less ANGSTY territory and then failed. So there is no 'less angst', there is just as much as before. And some of you may decide that Jiraiya needs to die. Horribly. I don't know. Anyway, Roma-chan is still pushing for more :) Also, this is turning from a Team Tensei side story to a prequel. *looks around* I have no idea how that happened... Jeeze...

*****xxXXxx*****

"So how did it go?" Naruto asks Sasuke as they lounged in the back of a bar under a clothed variation of Naruto's Sexy Jutsu. The wonderful thing about Naruto's Sexy Jutsu was that it was an impenetrable genjutsu. Sasuke still doesn't know how Naruto came up with it, but he figures that it's because Naruto didn't know that the Henge was supposed to be a genjutsu. The Sexy Jutsu is a _ninjutsu._

"Well," Sasuke flips her hair over his shoulder, "Everyone believed it and Hanji passed the murder off as self defence with a little temporary insanity thrown in to cover the mutilation of the body."

"Great." Naruto's blond hair falls into her face and he grins, "And therapy?"

Sasuke glowers, "I would kill you slowly for that if I hadn't promised to protect your life with my own," He isn't please about having to go to Jogen and Naruto knows it. "At least when I was ordered by the court to attend therapy for my 'temporary insanity' I was already going."

Sasuke is curious about how Naruto managed to get forensic evidence of sex but he isn't sure he wants to know. Sasuke doesn't know anyone, even then-Itachi, who is willing to go as far for even their Hokage as Naruto goes for his friends.

"And your family? Are they as much of a bunch of bastards as you remember?" Naruto's voice lilts and Sasuke remembers telling Naruto once that his father was a cold man who only paid attention to Itachi.

"I was wrong," Sasuke bows his head, "I was only a child then. Even before the incident, I found my father far more family oriented then I originally thought."

Naruto cocks her head to the side, "Really?" He smiles then, "Oh, I get it. You've been around Gaara and Neji and Hiashi for so long that you can tell what your parents mean this time, instead of not seeing what they don't say."

"Exactly," Sasuke agrees, "After so many years of experience around stoic people, I understand them much better."

"Ha!" Naruto giggles loudly, "Haha, oh gods, 'around stoic people'. Oh 'Ke-chan, you crack me up!" Naruto wipes tears of laughter away with a delicate orange polka dot handkerchief, "'Ke-chan, you _are_ one of the stoic ones."

"Hn." Sasuke sneers and Naruto breaks into giggles again.

She finally gets a hold of herself and takes a drink from the sake in front of her. Sasuke's lip draws up in disgust. If there is one habit that he wishes Naruto wouldn't have taken up from his various teachers, it's the sake drinking from Tsunade. Naruto can't get drunk because of the Kyuubi, but he sure looks like he tries.

Everyday.

"'To-chan, how did you find him?" Sasuke asks suddenly. He can't stand not knowing any more. He doesn't want to hear that Naruto lured the man out using himself. He wouldn't be able to handle it if that is what Naruto had done.

"Oh I found him immediately and started following him two weeks or so before I could make my move. He went to a live show in the red district and then went to the motel. He'd done that several times during my surveillance and I knew that he'd call down to the desk for a hooker. I found him jerking off when I went up."

"You?" Sasuke blanches, her face going white, "You went up?"

"Under a Sexy, yeah," Naruto doesn't seem to understand that what he'd done is horrifying for Sasuke to listen to. "I mean, I used the fake-sleep jutsu that Gaara taught me as soon as I went into the room. I pressed a genjutsu into his dreams about pleasure and, well," Her face blushes daintily, "That was that. Then I called you."

"You went up in a Sexy Jutsu and pretended to be a hooker?" Sasuke asks, incredulous. "Why would you do that? You could have concealed yourself."

"It was easier," Naruto shrugs her thin shoulders, "And I hide all the time. It gets boring."

"And so you decided to be a hooker." A thought occurs to Sasuke and he frowns, "How long where you in Sexy form? I mean, the clerk had to know that you were a hooker, right?"

"Oh I started hanging out in a younger Sexy form after the second time he went to that motel."

Sasuke feels his breath catch in his throat. Sasuke wants to ask how young Naruto had made his Sexy form but can't. "Had," He tries to stay calm, "Had the clerk called you before? Before that man?"

"Oh sure," Naruto grins at Sasuke like he's amused by his friend, "It not like I could hang around there without being suspicious if I hadn't answered a call or two."

"How many?" Sasuke can feel his stomach roll and he thinks he might be sick.

"How many what?"

"How many guys did- How many calls-?" Sasuke can't complete his question and swallows thickly when Naruto smiles at him.

"Three," Naruto says nonchalantly and Sasuke lunges from the table towards the women's bathroom. He drops to his knees in front of a toilet and throws up.

Naruto is suddenly there behind him, holding his long black hair from his face, murmuring soothing words. Sasuke can't hear them.

"---fine---too much sake---take her home---" Naruto is talking to someone and Sasuke is too busy to hear all the words she's telling someone over her shoulder.

"'To-chan?" Sasuke asks weakly, wiping the back of her mouth.

"Hey there, 'Ke-chan," Naruto helps her up, checks her pupils and hugs her while running a gentle hand over her hair, "Are you okay now?"

"Just-" Sasuke inhales clean air and shakes her head, eyes closed, "I want to go home, 'To-chan."

"Okay. Okay, come on now," Naruto helps Sasuke get her arm over her shoulders and they stagger out of the bar and turn towards Naruto's apartment. Someone follows them out and Naruto looks over her shoulder. "Hey, guys, it's fine. 'Ke-chan just had too much, that's all."

"You need any help finding her place?" Sasuke is in too much shock from Naruto's revelations to react to Kurenai Yuhi's voice.

"No, it's fine," Naruto smiles at Kurenai brightly, "We live together."

Sasuke pushes his shock to the side and manages to reach a hand up and cup Naruto's cheek and put a slur into her voice, "Les's go home, To-chan."

"Right, 'Ke-chan." Naruto kisses Sasuke lightly on the cheek, laughs and waves goodbye to the future leader of Team Eight. Sasuke leans on Naruto all the way back to his apartment.

They let a brief surge of component chakra wipe the Sexy Jutsu from their bodies as soon as the door closes behind them.

"Why did you throw up?" Naruto pulls out a ragged looking chair and sits Sasuke on it.

Sasuke bites his lip. "Naruto, you-" He stops and drops his face into his tiny, five year old hands, "You don't know, do you?"

"Don't know what?" Naruto's face is drawn in question and Sasuke sighs. "No, really, Sasuke. I mean, I've pretended to be a hooker before. Hell, Jiraiya-sensei was the one that told me all about what kind of information you can get though liberal use of 'pillow talk'."

"But you don't know that people aren't supposed to be 'okay' with that," Sasuke looks up at Naruto, "Would you ever ask Sakura to pretend to be a hooker to get information?" Sasuke knows what Naruto's answer is going to be.

"Of course." Naruto shrugs again and fills a glass with water as he talks, "I mean, I've asked her before. She didn't seem to mind after I told her that I would have done it but couldn't because I needed to cover as a heavy hitter on a different mission."

"..." Sasuke doesn't know what to say. Naruto, _Naruto_, has asked Sakura to play hooker and sleep with some random person and she'd done it. And apparently hadn't minded. "Was this before or after you made Hokage?"

Naruto stared at Sasuke, "Before. Why are you so upset?"

"Naruto!" Sasuke exclaimed, "Sakura is a medic, not a seductress."

"Sakura is a ninja," Naruto tells him, his voice hard, "I expect everyone, especially you, to remember that ninja are not honourable. I expect everyone to remember that ninja fight in the shadows and kill and steal and all the other bad stuff that civilians aren't allowed to do without very high penalties." Sasuke is blinking at Naruto, disoriented. He's never heard Naruto like this before. "Sasuke, I know that everyone wants to believe that I'm a loud idiot that will always be optimistic. I can be loud. I can pretend to be an idiot. I can be optimistic," Naruto smiles painfully, "But I am the best infiltrator the ninja world has ever seen. That means that I am quiet, I am smart and I am pessimistic enough to cover _every_ contingency. And that includes making sure I have all the information needed. If that requires me to have sex, then I have sex."

Naruto bows his head and Sasuke reaches out to Naruto, to take his hand. Naruto flinches back. "Naruto..." He trails off.

"I never wanted anyone to know, Sasuke. Do you know what training with Jiraiya was about, those two and a half years I was away from Konoha? I learned how to summon toads before the end of the chuunin exam. I learned how to do the Rasengan before Tsunade-baa-chan became Hokage. I learned the sage arts after Jiraiya died. Tell me, what did I learn from Jiraiya for two years?"

Sasuke ducks his head, "I don't know."

"I didn't want anyone to know. It's not easy to tell anyone, let alone someone I care about, that I've had extensive training in sex and information gathering. I was trained to spy, Sasuke."

"Why?" Sasuke whispered his question. Naruto wasn't the type of person who would seem to be good at spying. Sasuke couldn't understand why Jiraiya would have chosen to teach Naruto that set of skills.

"The Sexy Jutsu," Naruto looked away, embarrassed, "I... er. That's how I got him to train me in the first place. I turned into the girl and he said that he would train me if I always looked like that."

"And so you... seduced, training out of one of the Legendary Three." Sasuke felt his stomach roll again. He absently wondered if Sakura had needed to seduce Tsunade to get her training; after all, if Jiraiya and Orochimaru had needed sex to train someone, what about their teammate?

"No!" Naruto exclaims, "No, I didn't 'seduce' Ero-sennin!"

"And yet you call him the perverted hermit," Sasuke points out to Naruto.

Naruto bites his lip and shakes his head, "No. I did not have sex with Jiraiya." Naruto reaches out and clasps Sasuke's hand in his, "He just wanted someone pretty to look at, I swear." He laughs softly, "He got pretty pissed off at me when I stayed in my Sexy form for over a week. He said that no one, not even a jinchuuriki had enough chakra to sustain a Henge that long all while practicing Rasengan and summoning. He demanded that I show him my jutsu so I did."

"What did he say about it?"

"Oh," Naruto waved Sasuke's concern off, "He said that it was probably the most complex ninjutsu that he'd ever seen and that given the danger in it, it should be classed as a kinjutsu. Ninjutsu is gathered chakra that is released into an attack. The Sexy Jutsu is gathered chakra morphing my body. When I release the chakra it sticks my body in the form that I've chosen. Apparently if I don't visualize the exact body I want, right down to my toenails, the chakra could kill me when it's released. The component chakra that is used to purge the Sexy Jutsu is more of a body memory jutsu, it reminds the body of how it's supposed to look and changes me back."

Sasuke goggles at his friend, "What rank did he give it?"

"S-rank," Naruto shrugs Sasuke's concerns off. Sasuke knows that Naruto doesn't see a problem doing S-rank techniques all the time like the Fūton: Rasenrengan and Shadow Clones and most of his Sage jutsu; Sasuke doesn't think that Naruto even gave it a second thought to teach the Sexy Jutsu to an eight year old boy or to his teammates.

"I see." Sasuke turns his mind back to his question from the bar. He's been given too much information to assimilate all at once and needs a few days to think about Naruto's training and the Sexy Jutsu.

"Why did you throw up at the bar anyway?" Naruto sounds curious and Sasuke shakes his head.

"You didn't have to do that, what you did, you didn't have to. Not for me, Naruto."

"Do what?"

"Take the calls. Go to those rooms and-"

"Oh gods," Naruto rolls his eyes, interrupting Sasuke, "Hell no you bastard." He sits back and crosses his arms, scowling at Sasuke, "There was no way that I had sex with any of them. Man." He shakes his head in disbelief, "Seriously? You thought that I'd let a few guys screw me so I could get that man in the motel? No, no," Naruto runs a hand through his hair, "No, I used the sleep jutsu and a pleasure dream genjutsu, like I used on the target. I needed some practice."

Sasuke feels his breath leave him in a relieved exhalation, "Oh thank the gods," He rubs his eye with the palm of his hands. "The way you were talking, I thought you'd had sex."

"No offence Sasuke," Naruto snorted, "But you aren't worth sex unless it was the last possible option. I don't like sex and I sure as hell ain't going to have it now."

"I completely understand," Sasuke chuckles. "So you set everything up for me to just come in and kill the man. Did you do anything else?"

"Made a Shadow Clone and pretended to be you and him. Let one or two of the neighbours see him drag you into the room."

"Hn." Sasuke scowls, "Jiro said that they never found any witnesses."

"Oh, there were witnesses," Naruto sniffs, "Bastards probably didn't come forward because they were scared of the police."

"Most likely," Sasuke agrees with him.

Frankly the brunet is just too relieved that Naruto hadn't done what he'd thought Naruto had done. He is thankful that his friend loves him that much, but he never wanted to force Naruto into a position where he would ever have to debase himself.

"Thank you, Naruto." Sasuke nods to Naruto and stands. "I should go. Itachi is going to be looking for me soon."

Naruto laughs loudly, "Irritated at your 'stalker', Sasuke?"

"More than," Sasuke drawls lazily, "He'll leave me alone at the Nara's and the Inuzuka's, but pretty much anywhere else and I can feel him staring a hole in the back of my head."

"But he loves you," Naruto's voice is wistful and Sasuke clasps Naruto's shoulder.

"I love you Naruto. Sakura loves you. We all love you." Sasuke refers to then-Rookie 9.

Naruto leans into his hand for a moment then straightens up, "Alright, I'll see you at the Academy in two weeks, yeah?"

"Yeah, I'll be waiting for you." Sasuke grips tight to Naruto's shoulder then lets go and leaves. He has to get back to the Uchiha compound before Itachi returns from his mission and starts looking for him.

*****xxXXxx*****


	12. Inabi

**Title: **Inabi

**Rating: **T

**Summary: **Inabi is one of the two, now three, Uchiha with Mangekyō Sharingan. If he's going to be teaching Sasuke about it, he's going to need to know Sasuke.

**Warnings:** Serious stuff going down here people, get your hanky.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.

**Author Note:** Short. Sweet. Not a lot of angst, but also kinda boring. Just some background for the new/canon name character. LOL :)

*****xxXXxx*****

Inabi Uchiha is talking with Mikoto in the kitchen when Sasuke comes home. Mikoto looks up from the table.

"Sasuke," She asks her son, "Where were you today?"

Sasuke shrugs a shoulder just like Fugaku always does, "Nowhere in particular."

"I see." Mikoto murmurs. Inabi can see that she wants to say something about being by himself, but can't. He understands. Fugaku is a very important person to the Uchiha clan and when the news of his son's matured sharingan swept throughout the clan there wasn't a single Uchiha unwilling to do anything possible to help.

He watches Sasuke move around the kitchen, pulling out an apple and some cheese. Sasuke gets himself a plate and arranges the food in geometric patterns on it. Inabi doesn't know when Sasuke started to organize his meals like that, in perfect parts, but thinks that it's just one of the ways the boy keeps his life under control.

"Mother," Sasuke looks up from his food and Mikoto smiles at him, "Who is going to train me in using the Mangekyō?"

Inabi can see Mikoto's flinch at the word 'Mangekyō' but isn't sure that Sasuke saw it. "You have two cousins with the Mangekyō. Kichō-chan is away on a mission for a few more days, but Inabi has agreed to start training you as soon as you feel that you're ready." She gestures to Inabi and he nods his head to the child.

"Inabi-san?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes, Inabi is Jiro-san's younger brother." Mikoto sighs.

Inabi smiles at Sasuke, "Hello, Sasuke-kun."

"Hello," Sasuke looks at him unblinkingly and Inabi doesn't let it disturb him.

Sasuke finishes his food without saying anything else. Inabi just waits for him. He knows that when Sasuke is ready, he'll tell him. Mikoto excuses herself and then it's just the two of them in the kitchen.

Sitting at the table, Inabi watches Sasuke. The child moves like he's been fighting his entire life and Inabi knows that it's not just what Sasuke has learned by training. People only move that proficiently when they are on high alert. Inabi doesn't want Sasuke to be scared of him but with the way the child is keeping the table between them, he knows Sasuke is wary. Inabi wonders if Sasuke is wary around all men.

"How are you?" Inabi keeps his voice low and level when he speaks. It seems to him that Sasuke isn't going to start a conversation with him so it falls to Inabi to begin.

"I am fine," Sasuke responds in kind, his voice exactly monotone.

"You didn't want your mother knowing where you went today."

"I came home." Inabi would have taken Sasuke's words as defensive if it wasn't for how the child was speaking.

"Yes. Were you with someone?"

"Are you my keeper?" Sasuke questions him.

Inabi smiles, just a quirk of his lips, "Since I am to be one of your teachers knowing where you are and who you are with does fall under my purview." Sasuke treats him to a raised eyebrow and Inabi drops his smile, "You are an important child, Sasuke. You should be protected."

"Like I was then?" Sasuke sneers and Inabi bites his lip.

"I'm sorry for the pain that you've been through, Sasuke," He tells the child, "I'm sorry that you weren't as closely watched as you should have been."

Inabi can't say that Sasuke will be safe; can't say that it wouldn't have happened if Sasuke had stayed with the group in Oak Park. Inabi knows that no matter what someone does, or how well they are protected bad things can still happen to them.

For example his own experiences left no doubt that no matter how vigilant you or your family is, someone can always sneak past the walls.

"Do you know how my sharingan evolved?" Inabi doesn't like telling people his story, but if it helps Sasuke, he's willing to recount his tale.

"No." Sasuke keeps his answer short. Inabi is fairly sure that he wants to tell his cousin that he doesn't want to know, but is too curious to say so.

"I fell in love," Inabi sighs and leans back in his chair, leaving himself open, undefended, "I was going to marry her you see. She was so beautiful. Kind. Generous." He shakes his head, "I brought her home and we lived together for two months in the compound." Sasuke has perked up and is listening intently. "I invited Jiro over to meet her. I'd kept her to myself because I loved her so much that I didn't want to share." Inabi closes his eyes and bows his head. "The moment Jiro walked through the door she tried to kill him."

Sasuke gasps and Inabi laughs an empty laugh. There is silence for a bit and then Inabi starts talking again.

"She was a spy. Her mission was to kill someone close to Fugaku-san. She almost killed Jiro and she just kept fighting and I was the one to land the killing blow. Something in our chakra knows every other chakra we've touched and my chakra touched her first in love, then physical intimacy, then in death. My sharingan matured a year ago."

Sasuke's face has fallen and Inabi watches him sort through a mire of emotions before he closes his face off into a blank facade. "I see."

"Kichō is on a mission and she won't be back for several days. I haven't used the Mangekyō very often, but I know enough to get us started. When you've learned what I know, Kichō had agreed to take over from there. Is that alright?" Inabi doesn't want to dictate to Sasuke, but he can only train the boy so much before the genius overtakes his knowledge.

"Kichō-san knows more?"

Inabi nodded. Kichō is half blind now. She's had her Mangekyō active since she was twenty and she's just had her twenty-eighth birthday. For Kichō it isn't a matter of how long she's had her Mangekyō, it's a matter of when can she get away with using it until she ends up completely blind. She doesn't have the chakra available to use it all the time, but she will continue to use it until it's gone.

She had originally chosen to take the mission that resulted in her sharingan evolution and Inabi knows that she chose to because it gave her an edge against higher level ninja. Given her chakra level she would have stayed a chuunin her entire life otherwise; because of her Mangekyō she had been able to lay claim to tokubetsu jounin.

She is good enough now to keep her tokubetsu title even after she's gone completely blind.

"She has had her matured sharingan for eight years," is all Inabi says. Sasuke doesn't need to know the details.

"I understand," Sasuke nods. Inabi expects more questions from him but there aren't any.

"May we start tomorrow?" Sasuke stands and his fingers fidget a bit. Inabi thinks that Sasuke isn't so much fidgeting as he is trying not to form hand seals.

He wonders why Sasuke would think he needs hand seals.

The door opens and Inabi can feel Itachi's chakra questing out into the house. Sasuke's face lifts and he smiles a true smile.

"Otouto?" Itachi calls out and Sasuke inches around Inabi to get to the hallway.

He stands as well and watches the brothers hug.

"Itachi-kun," Inabi nods to Itachi over Sasuke's head. Itachi kind of glares at him and he thinks that it's just a little bit adorable that Itachi is taking the protection of Sasuke so far. He's heard from others that Itachi is following Sasuke even to the other clan compounds and nearly smiles when Itachi's glare intensifies as more time passes without Sasuke letting him go.

"Are you okay?" Sasuke mutters into Itachi's neck and Itachi nods. Inabi has to look away before his grin splits his face in two. They remind Inabi of his own brother and himself.

"I'm fine, Otouto." Itachi manoeuvres the two of them into the living room and sits down. Sasuke sits beside him, not quite curled up into him, "How was your day?"

"Good." Sasuke doesn't elaborate and Inabi speaks up.

"Sasuke went missing for just over two hours this afternoon. No one can recall where he was or who he was with." Inabi isn't trying to get Sasuke in trouble with Itachi but he does think that Itachi should know.

The elder of the brothers looks down at Sasuke, "Where did you go, Otouto?"

"Nowhere." Sasuke shrugs.

Inabi rubs his mouth in the pretence of thought, "He didn't get home until just before you came home."

"Who were you with, Sasuke?" Itachi asks quietly.

Sasuke looks down at the floor. "I made a friend." He murmurs. He looks ashamed and Inabi feels worry rising.

"A friend?" Itachi asks, "What is their name?"

"She said her name was Naruko. She was walking on water near the hot springs just outside the compound." Sasuke looks up and Inabi can see that he looks scared. "I want to be friends with her, Aniki, I really do."

"Do you know how old she is?" By the way Itachi is petting Sasuke's hair, he is worried about something like the incident happening again. Most ninja don't learn to walk on water until they are between the ages of fourteen and eighteen.

No girl that old would take the time to make friends with a five year old, no matter how genius they are.

"I don't know. She's older than me."

"Younger than your mother?" Inabi butts into their conversations and Itachi shoots him a furious look. Inabi ignores it, "Naruko-chan?" He clarifies his question, "Is she younger than your mother?"

"Yes," Sasuke nods. "Yes, she's younger than Mother."

"I see," Itachi hums under his breath, "Did you talk together?"

"Yes. She is very nice." Sasuke smiles, "She was drinking something sweet from a bottle. I asked her what it was and she said it was sake." He rolls his eyes, "She said I couldn't have any. I'm too young."

Inabi thinks that is a good thing. Traumatic experience or not, Sasuke is five. No five year old should be drinking. He watches for a while longer as Sasuke expands on his afternoon and Itachi asks questions here and there.

He decides that he'll come back the following day and ask when Sasuke wants to start learning about his Mangekyō. Tonight he'll leave Sasuke in the ever gentle hands of his older brother.

*****xxXXxx*****


	13. Naruko

**Title: **Naruko

**Rating: **M

**Summary: **Itachi wants to know who this 'Naruko' is that Sasuke was talking to. He gets in a little over his head when he meets her though.

**Warnings:** Serious stuff going down here people, get your hanky. (this chapter is a little more cheerful and funny though :)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.

**Author Note:** Ahh. The 'Hug no Jutsu'. You know Konoha ninja are dangerous when they can tackle-hug you and run away laughing before you even realise that they've mussed you up. **pk**, you made my week with that :) I mean, imagine if they'd of had a weapon? Or a feather? They could have DUSTED you without you knowing :)

*****xxXXxx*****

Itachi crouches in a tree near to the hot springs that Sasuke had told him about yesterday. He is curious and worried about this girl that Sasuke was talking about. He's not quite sure that he believes Sasuke about her anyway.

"Hey," A voice to his left startles him and he palms a handful of senbon while he turns defensively.

The owner of the voice is pretty, blond, and female.

"Hello," He keeps the senbon in hand.

"So what'cha up to?"

She is hanging from a tree branch above him by her knees. Her hair is in two long pig tails that are dangling past his feet. She is grinning and smiling and happy. She is nothing like Itachi knows ninja are.

"I am looking for a woman named Naruko," Itachi tells her. From the description that Sasuke gave him last night, this should be her.

"Yep, you found her," Naruko starts swinging her body back and forth from the knees lazily, her hair brushing over the branch he is standing on, "What can I do for you?"

"You were talking to Sasuke Uchiha yesterday." Itachi keeps his voice is cold and formal. He puts the senbon back in his weapons pouch.

"Sure. Sasuke-chan is cute. And he wanted to learn how to water-walk," Naruko smirked and flips off the tree branch, falling gracefully to the ground beneath them. She lands with less than a whisper of sound and Itachi can't help but feel a little impressed. "Said his older brother was too busy to teach him."

Itachi flinches.

Naruko meanders idly over to the hot springs and sits cross-legged on one of the large boulders, steam rising around her.

Itachi follows, carefully. "You taught him?" She looks at him with a raised eyebrow and he hastily clarifies, "You taught him to water walk?"

"What?" She rolls her eyes at him and she sounds almost dismissive of him. He's never heard someone sound like that when they talk to him, "Like you were ever going to do it," She has a pout on her face and then she leans back, so far back that Itachi thinks that she will fall off the boulder but she only stretches her arms above her head and rolls her head from side to side. Her neck cracks.

Itachi can feel his face grow warm and he looks away.

The steam is making her white tank top see through and her stretching has plastered her shirt to her breasts.

He feels embarrassed that he caught a glimpse of one of her nipples through the shirt.

She laughs gaily at him and he looks back to see her still splayed over the boulder, her legs now provocatively spread and her hands running down her sides, "Am I bothering you?" She asks him in a husky, breathy voice.

"N-no." Itachi is mortified that he stutters and his cheeks flush even more. He averts his eyes when Naruko rolls from her back to her side, facing him. The only explanation for her not falling off the boulder is that she is using chakra to stick to it.

Her breasts push together and he can see through her shirt as though it isn't there at all, "What's your name, baby chuunin?" She drawls at him and he spins on his heel, looking steadfastly at the Uchiha compound wall.

"I am Itachi Uchiha." He states, trying to wrest his pounding heart under control.

"Ahh," He can hear the smirk in her voice, "I've heard of the Uchiha heir who made chuunin at the age of nine." A hand is suddenly trailing over his shoulders and down his arm. A lock of thick, damp, blond hair settles in front of his face. "How... Interesting," She breathes into his ear.

Her breath on his neck makes him shiver and he ducks out from under her arms. She laughs at him.

"Please don't," He commands shakily. He's never seen a woman act like this before and it is shocking. He has no reference for how to respond.

"Sorry Baby-Chuunin," She smirks and leaps into one of the many trees. She lays herself back on the branch and props one foot against the tree trunk.

"Apology accepted," Itachi tells her. He is still uncomfortable around her, but she is not being quite so strange now.

"Anyway, yeah." Naruko shrugs idly, "I showed Sasuke-chan the basics to water walking." She smiles and her face lights up and Itachi is surprised at how very _bright_ she looks with that smile, "He's a quick learner."

Itachi hums under his breath. He's never taught his brother anything so he doesn't know. He feels guilt well up in him about that. He never taught his brother any kata, never taught him how to throw weapons, never taught him chakra exercises. He thinks that maybe he isn't worthy to be a big brother.

"How old are you?" He finally asks. He can't tell how old she is and it is frustrating him.

Her smile turns into a smirk and she looks over her bare, tanned shoulder, at him. He thinks that the look she is giving him is supposed to be seductive. He doesn't like how it makes his stomach tighten, "Maa, Baby-Chuunin, I'm twenty-nine."

She is lying. She has to be, Itachi thinks. She doesn't look like she could be a day over seventeen and he knows that she isn't under a Henge or an illusion genjutsu.

"My name is Itachi," he says. The way that she calls him 'Baby-Chuunin' is aggravating and he doesn't like it. As he thinks about it, he realises that he can't think of anything that he likes about her. Not even the tightness in his stomach that he gets from looking at her even though it feels kind of nice.

"Whatever you say, Baby-Chuunin," She laughs again and lounges some more.

"Are you a ninja?" Itachi realises that he hasn't seen her hitai-ite anywhere on her.

"Are you playing 'bad cop'?" She leers at him then sits up with a laugh, "Here," She tosses something down to him. He catches it and looks at it.

It's a hitai-ite attached to a bright orange cloth.

The leaf symbol has a thick scratch through the center of it.

Itachi drops the missing nin hitai-ite but before he can defend himself or activate his sharingan she moves. He doesn't even notice that she's moved until the point of a kunai is pressing into the side of his throat.

"Is someone supposed to be playing 'good cop' in our little game?"

Her arm is around his waist and then they are flying through the air, up over the tree tops and when he looks down he can see the entirety of Konoha under them and his breath quickens and he's afraid and she's laughing and she must be crazy because their falling suddenly and she's holding him too tight, he can't move, can't prepare to land...

Then it's over and Itachi is standing on the rock carved head of the Yondaime on the Hokage monument.

Itachi can see that his hands are shaking and he takes a few deep breathes to calm himself. His nerves are shaken and he remembers that she's still there and he spins to center her in his gaze.

Naruko is lounging on the rocks like they'd never moved from one rock bed to another.

"What did you do-" Itachi pauses when she looks up at him and her _blueblueblue_ eyes aren't blue anymore but violet.

"You can't protect Sasuke-chan, Baby-Chuunin," She growls at him and he can feel the killer intent washing over him as though it were heavy air from a blazing fire. "There are going to be times when Sasuke-chan will need to stand by himself."

"I am his brother!" Itachi exclaims and forces himself to shut up.

Naruko snarls at him, "You will hurt him, Baby-Chuunin, if all you do is protect him."

"You're missing-nin," Itachi croaks dryly, "I should-"

"You should what?" She laughs at him. It's a horrible sound, "You should try to kill me? You should alert someone?" She tosses her head back and smoothes her hair from her face, "Please, you aren't even a match for me."

"I shouldn't trust anything you say," Itachi lifts his head like a proper heir to a powerful clan and feels only a little insignificant and silly when all Naruko does is laugh at him.

"Missing-nin tell the truth too, you know," She leans back and sighs, "If you protect him all the time, Baby-Chuunin, you'll stunt him. He won't grow, he won't get stronger."

"He doesn't need to be stronger," Itachi hisses out. He thinks that Sasuke is far too strong already. Sasuke has dealt with so much over the last month and a half that he's shocked by his little brother's strength.

"And when war comes?" Naruko hisses her question back at him. She suddenly seems bigger than she was; taller, stronger, bigger than life. She leans over him and blocks out the sun.

Itachi can see the shimmer of the sunlight behind her head and thinks she looks almost like an avenging angel.

"There won't be war," He whispers. Even he doesn't believe himself.

Naruko shakes her head, "You can't promise that." She backs up and he feels like she is on a yo-yo, coming in close then backing away and then coming in close again.

He wonders if she ever gets tired and he frowns at himself. She is missing-nin. He should not be questioning irrelevant things like that. She would not be going back and forth if it would tire her out.

"Are you saying you're going to start a war?" He hardens his voice and forces his eyes to meet hers. To his surprise her eyes are blue again.

"No." She answers shortly. "But I will end it."

Before Itachi can ask what she means, Naruko leans in close, again, flicks her kunai over his collar bone just enough to leave a thin red line and vanishes.

Itachi covers the mark under his throat with his hand and isn't sure how to react. He doesn't know why she did that, he doesn't know who she even was. He has his own Bingo book and he's never seen her before in it. Perhaps she is a new missing-nin.

He doesn't believe that. When Konoha ninja go rogue, every loyal Konoha ninja is told.

If she isn't a new missing-nin, she must be an older one. How she got into Konoha undetected is a mystery though. And maybe she really is twenty-nine. Maybe she is older. There have been rumours of a shadow organization looking for immortal S-class missing-nin running around the underground but Itachi never thought it was real. It may be that 'Naruko' was in Konoha on a recruiting mission, though he doesn't know who she would have been trying to recruit.

The only thing that Itachi knows for sure is that if missing-nin are taking an interest in his little brother he's going to do everything he can to help him get strong. Even if that means he has to back off a little and let Sasuke deal with things by himself. It's not like Naruko hurt Sasuke yesterday anyway.

Stopping for a moment to orient himself Itachi flickers three times in a row to get back to the hot springs where he had originally found Naruko.

He absently fingers the scratch on his collar bone. He wonders why she did that. It wasn't going to scar, it wasn't painful, it wasn't bleeding; there was no point to it.

Maybe that was the point, he thinks as he looks at his reflection in the steaming water. Something that only lasts for a moment of your life, something that doesn't leave a scar, something that doesn't have a point. He thinks that maybe she is trying to tell him something about Sasuke; about how Sasuke's attack was only one moment of his life, how he will have no physical scars, how the attack was without reason, but something that he will remember for the rest of his life. Something that will make him more cautious, more careful, and less likely to act without thinking more thoroughly.

But maybe he's just over thinking it. After all, Naruko is just a missing-nin. She has no real interest in Sasuke.

*****xxXXxx*****


	14. Cousin

**Title: **Cousin

**Rating: **T

**Summary: **Fugaku is spending more time with his family and Inabi is training Sasuke. And then Shisui comes over looking for Itachi and Fugaku isn't sure, but he thinks that maybe Sasuke hates his cousin.

**Warnings:** Serious stuff going down here people, get your hanky.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.

**Author Note:** Latelatelate. I know. Sorry. So many stories, so little time. But, I'm back. :) Also, Romantiscue has written me an Omake for this chapter :) Because she loves me :)

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Fugaku watches Sasuke spar with Inabi in the back yard. He's taken Friday off again to be with his family for longer periods of time. Sasuke hugs him every morning and Fugaku finds that he is now touching his family more. He kisses his wife every time he sees her and hugs his sons and he clasps the shoulders of those he works with, and when the smaller children are playing in the park and he's the one to help babysit, they are no longer wary of dragging him around by his hand.

Fugaku also finds that he's been smiling more. It's strange that the assault of his son would open his family to casual touching and sincere gestures of warmth.

Now that Fugaku has been taking his family around to other clans for supper, the Uchihas have also been approached more often by people outside of their own clan. It had started very formally but over the last few months has turned into social visits and dinners with friends, rather than meetings with allies.

Inabi pauses the sparring and crouches down by Sasuke, explaining something to him.

Fugaku watches.

"Uncle!" Shisui Uchiha, Jiro's eldest son, barges through the back door, "Do you know where Itachi is?" He's out of breath and Fugaku smirks.

"I haven't seen him since he left for the Mission Room this morning." He tells his nephew, "Why are you looking for him?"

"Oh," Shisui grins, "I'm headed out on a four day mission and wanted to bug him a little before I left."

"Oh really," Fugaku mentally rolls his eyes. Shisui is a bit like Obito once was, though less exuberant around non-Uchihas. "Bug him? Or torment him?"

As Shisui chuckles and tells Fugaku that he doesn't torment Itachi, the head of the clan notices that Sasuke has stiffened and is watching him and his cousin with spinning Mangekyō eyes.

He stands and manoeuvres himself in between his son and Shisui.

"Uncle?" Shisui frowns and then his eyes widen and he glances around Fugaku to see Sasuke. He bites his lip and looks to Fugaku, "How is Sasuke?"

"Doing better," Fugaku says quietly. Fugaku doesn't know why Sasuke is responding in such a way to Shisui and he wants to know, but he isn't going to push right now.

"Oh," Shisui has calmed considerably and he runs a hand through his shoulder length hair. Most of the Uchiha clan who previously had long hair had cut it so that it was no longer than their shoulders. They knew what had happened to Sasuke and they didn't want to cause him to flashback. "And Itachi? Is he still following Sasuke around?"

"Not as much," Fugaku is proud that his eldest son has curbed his tendencies to stalk his youngest. It had been somewhat disturbing to sense Itachi every time he'd seen Sasuke.

There had been a change in Itachi the day after Inabi had come over to talk with Sasuke before the Academy had started, and the genius had seemed to start to relax around his little brother. He still hovered over him, but he also started to help Sasuke whenever he could. It is a change that Fugaku is thankful for.

"So, um," Shisui fidgets a bit and Fugaku reaches out and lays a hand on his shoulder. Shisui startles but doesn't pull away. It's still new, this touching people thing that Fugaku has been trying, but no one has denied him yet. At least, no one in the family. "Uncle Inabi is teaching Sasuke?"

"Yes," Fugaku nods, "Kichō is recovering from her mission in the hospital still."

"I heard," Shisui murmurs. He pauses then looks up at Fugaku, "Is she really half blind?" He is curious and Fugaku can understand why. The Mangekyō is very tempting to activate, given its abilities, but that temptation is tempered by the costs.

"Yes. She can no longer see colours and her vision has deteriorated to the point where she can't see much past twenty-five feet." Fugaku shakes his head. Kichō knew what she was getting into at least. "Using the Mangekyō she can see more clearly than any of us, but her chakra reserves are too small for her to use her eyes for very long. That is one of the reasons she was injured."

"She can fight blind though, right?" Shisui asks, "I've seen her practicing blindfolded."

"Yes, she can fight blind," Fugaku agrees. It is something that the Uchiha have to practice, though every single member of the family hates it. They have a powerful dōjutsu and just in case they mature their eyes too far, they practice fighting blind. It's something they hide from the rest of Konoha. The Uchihas aren't ashamed of their Mangekyō, but they are aware of how it could seem to others. It's something they won't have to hide much longer, now that the Clans are getting along and the fact that Fugaku has explained to the Council exactly what the Mangekyō is.

There is a tug on Fugaku's shirt and he looks under his arm to his hip to see Sasuke hiding behind him, eyes black as night. "Father?"

"Sasuke," Fugaku lets his arm rest over Sasuke's shoulder casually and the boy smiles up at him, "Are you done training with Inabi?"

"No," Sasuke says and his eyes don't stray from Shisui, "Hello, Cousin."

"Sasuke," Shisui smiles brightly.

The smile is fake and Fugaku wonders if Sasuke can tell.

"How are you?" Sasuke asks and Fugaku wants to draw his son away from Shisui for some odd reason. He can't pinpoint why he doesn't want Sasuke near Shisui, but he trusts his senses.

Then he wonders if he wants to remove Sasuke from Shisui's presence for Sasuke's sake, or for Shisui's.

Fugaku gestures for Inabi to come forward and hands his son over to his cousin, "Continue training, Sasuke," He tells Sasuke and presses a light kiss on the boy's forehead. Sasuke doesn't flinch and Fugaku is grateful to Jogen for the all the help he is providing for Sasuke.

"Goodbye, Cousin," Sasuke says and Fugaku thinks that Sasuke's words seem very final and it worries him.

Shisui just grins and waves.

"Shisui," Fugaku draws Jiro's son into the house, "I don't think that you should be alone with Sasuke."

"Uncle!" Shisui exclaims and his face contorts in dismay, "I would never hurt Sasuke!"

"I-" Fugaku breaks off then licks his lips, "I'm not worried that you will hurt Sasuke, Shisui."

Shisui frowns and then cocks his head to the side. "Why would Sasuke want to hurt me?" He's bewildered. He's done nothing to Sasuke that Fugaku is aware of, but he needs to protect everyone in his family.

"I don't know." Fugaku suddenly has an epiphany, "Perhaps it is because Itachi spends more time with you, than he does with Sasuke." Sasuke loves Itachi and glares at even Mikoto when she separates them.

"What?" Shisui scoffs, "We work together." Shisui is fifteen and a chuunin like Itachi. They work well together and usually go on the same missions. "I don't take Itachi away from Sasuke. Hell, if anything, Sasuke is stealing Itachi all to himself lately."

Fugaku is stunned that Shisui has actually said that out loud and he stares at the teenager. Shisui's eyes widen and he claps a hand over his mouth.

"Excuse me?" Fugaku growls at Shisui and Shisui bows hastily.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean- I shouldn't have said that. It's not true, I know, I'm just frustrated that Itachi's been taking less missions and I haven't seen him in a while and we're friends and-"

Fugaku snaps his fingers loudly and Shisui shuts up. Fugaku used to snap his fingers at his family members to get their attention instead of touching their shoulder or saying their name. This regression to his old habits shocks Fugaku and he reaches out and lifts Shisui out of his formal bow.

"I'm sorry," He bites his lower lip and Shisui is still staring at him with shocked eyes. "I know that you miss Itachi." There really isn't more that Fugaku can say. He knows that Shisui misses Itachi and he knows that Shisui is genuinely sorry that he said what he'd said.

Mikoto catches Fugaku's eyes at the doorway to the kitchen and he nods to her.

"I- I should go," Shisui excuses himself and hurries out the front door with one last backwards look over his shoulder. Fugaku watches him go and frowns. He hadn't meant to startle or scare Shisui.

"Fugaku?" Mikoto wraps her arms around Fugaku's waist and he covers her hands with his own.

"Shisui shouldn't be alone with Sasuke," He says to her. "Sasuke doesn't like him."

"Enough that you're trying to keep them apart?" Mikoto murmurs into his neck and he twists his head to look at her over his shoulder.

"Sasuke wasn't leaking killing intent, but he..." Fugaku's eyebrow furrows, "Sasuke didn't seem ready to attack Shisui, but I saw something I didn't like in Sasuke. It was dangerous."

Mikoto nods against his shoulder and tightened her hold on him. "Alright, I'll watch out for any encounters."

Fugaku loves Mikoto more than he could ever say out loud. She's been steady for almost the whole occurrence and he's tried as much as he could to be there for her. It's harder for him, he thinks. He's seen so much as the head of the police in Konoha and he's had to make himself believe that what he's seen will never, could never, happen to his family and now that it has, it's almost killing him. He has to go to work and see all the horrible things that he'd steeled himself against before and now it's all new and fresh and horrifying.

Sasuke comes in the back door with Inabi at his heels and Mikoto releases him from her hold. Apparently they've been standing in the hallway, staring at nothing, holding each other for a half hour.

"How was your training?" Fugaku asks Sasuke and Sasuke brushes a lock a damp hair from his face.

"Good." Sasuke smiles up at them and Fugaku smiles back. "Uncle Inabi said that Aunt Kichō will be getting out of the hospital soon." It's almost a question but at the same time it's not.

Fugaku decides to treat it as a question and nods, "Yes, she's been ordered to bed rest for one more day and then two days of physical therapy and then she'll be back in the compound."

Sasuke nods and heads up the stairs. Mikoto smiles politely at Inabi and excuses herself and follows Sasuke upstairs.

Inabi sighs and turns to Fugaku, "Well, I can say that your son is a genius."

"Really?" Fugaku murmurs, his attention only partially on his cousin. He knows that Sasuke is going to take a shower. It's not unusual to take a shower after hard training, but Sasuke has been taking two or three showers a day. Jogen has told Fugaku that Sasuke's need to take showers will wane, but Fugaku is still waiting for that.

"I only have to show him a technique once and whether he has his sharingan activated or not, he'll get it and understand it." Inabi rubs an eyebrow idly, "Kid is smarter than Itachi."

"I know," Fugaku murmurs again. Itachi was his pride and joy for so many years. He'd spend so many hours with Itachi, teaching and moulding him into a perfect ninja, and he's spent so many hours ignoring Sasuke. It hurts him to realise that he's been playing favourites to such an extent that Sasuke doesn't expect him or Itachi to teach him anything.

Sasuke had gone off with a stranger when he'd been promised training. It is heartbreaking to know that Sasuke had been so desperate for something new to occupy his mind with that he'd ignored his common sense and taken off without telling anyone.

Fugaku knows that Sasuke will never do that again because of what happened, but he wishes with all his heart that Sasuke had learned that lesson in a less violent and violated manner.

There's nothing that Fugaku can do now though but be there here his son no matter what.

He won't leave his family alone again. Never again.

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**OMAKE** By Romantiscue (user id: 1605665)

**

Iori juggled her grocery bags awkwardly, trying to look inconspicuous and surely failing horribly. She wasn't ninja, after all.

She wasn't the only civilian stopping to stare today though, so she didn't feel too embarrassed. Her neighbour and his four-year-old son were both tilting their heads and squinting, as if trying to make sure they were really seeing what they thought they were.

About a dozen dressed-in-full-ninja-gear-snobby-scowls-in-place Uchiha were standing outside the Wonderwoman's Hair Salon's pink-tinted door, glaring at the air, the spectators, the sky, the ground, each other, the houses, their hands and the door they were queuing in front of.

Wonderwoman - aka Yazaki Umi - could be seen through a window, tsking over a customer (a glaring, sniffing, huffing, puffing ect. Uchiha). She was wielding a pair of scissors, a can of Silk Drop Hairspray (Makes Your Hair Soft And Shiny) and a comb over his head.

This continued, with almost rhythmical repetitiveness, until the line had dispersed and the Uchiha's (with Soft And Shiny, and much shorter, hair) had stalked off, smelling like rose-scented shampoo.

Iori studied the rainbow-coloured dusk sky, absently noticing all the flying pigs that seemed to have settled down on the rooftops. She promptly left her bags were they were and decided to go drinking. She had never done that before, and this seemed like an awfully good day to start, what with the approaching Apocalypse and all.

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	15. Academy

**Title: **Academy

**Rating: **M

**Summary: **Sasuke is acting strange, he's avoiding people and Itachi is damned sure that he's going to find out why.

**Warnings:** Serious stuff going down here people, get your hanky. Strong language and death.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.

**Author Note:** Okay, we just got back into tissue!warning area again. So everyone knows, and doesn't ball me out for having every bad thing under the sun happen to Sasuke - twice - remember that Sasuke is a very good liar. Not only is he a good liar, but he is also trying to protect people and when he sees something weird going on, he's going to step in.

Also, please remember that I said this probably wouldn't have a happy ending. Nothing in this story is going to be happy-happy-joy-joy. You're reading this for the ANGST.

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He has only gotten home from his mission at noon and is slowly falling unconscious on the couch, waiting for Sasuke to return home from the Academy. Sasuke has been retreating into himself more and more and Itachi needs to find out why. Has to know why, when his little brother has been doing so well, he is now regressing.

"Aniki?" Sasuke's voice calls him out of his daze and he looks to the door where Sasuke is hanging his coat, "You're home."

"I am." Itachi stands and makes his way to his baby brother. He starts to reach out to hug Sasuke when the child flinches back from him with wide eyes. Sasuke stops moving immediately, but it has already happened. "Otouto?" He asks, afraid. Why had Sasuke flinched? Sasuke has only ever flinched once from him and that had been the day he'd been attacked.

"Aniki," Sasuke's voice is shaky and he bites his lip, "Please don't touch me."

"Sasuke?" He's scared. What the hell has happened to Sasuke to regress his actions like this? He _needs to know_.

Sasuke doesn't answer him, instead edges around him and races up the stairs. Itachi watches his brother and his heart constricts.

He follows Sasuke up the stairs and stops outside of his room. The door is closed and he knocks carefully.

Sasuke doesn't answer so he opens the door slowly. There is no cry of outrage that he's barged into Sasuke's private space.

He finds Sasuke curled up in a corner with his blanket. His little brother is rocking back and forth muttering to himself. Itachi gets to his knees, like he's seen his mother do, and waits until Sasuke stops mumbling.

"Otouto?" He asks his brother and Sasuke looks up at him. Sasuke's sharingan is active, but thankfully it's only in it's three tomoe stage and not the Mangekyō.

"Aniki," Sasuke whispers and is almost begging, "I didn't deserve it. I don't- I don't think I deserved it."

Itachi feels his heart miss a beat and he bites his bottom lip. "No, Otouto, you didn't deserve it." Rage fills him but he doesn't let it show, "Did someone say that to you?"

"I-" Sasuke pauses and cocks his head to the side. "No." Sasuke's tone is completely flat and Itachi frowns.

"Please don't lie to me, Sasuke," He says gently, "If someone told you that then I should know who it was."

"There's nothing wrong, Aniki. Nothing at all."

He wants to argue, wants tell Sasuke that he's lying, but he can't. His mouth is dry and he blinks slowly. He tries to think of who could possibly be telling such horrible things to his baby brother and can't come up with any names. None of the younger Uchiha children have been told and he knows that the Council members haven't told their families. Not even Hatake knows.

His little brother reaches out to him and he gathers the boy into his arms. "Otouto," He whispers into Sasuke's ear and Sasuke lays his head on Itachi's shoulder, face in his neck.

"He said that I must have wanted it. He said that it happened because I wanted it," Sasuke mumbles into his skin, "I'm too good to just let some civilian do that to me, so I must have wanted it. He said I must want it."

There is a taint of killing intent in the air from Sasuke and Itachi can feel that it's focused inward and he tightens his hold on his baby brother.

"No. No, Sasuke, you didn't want it. You were drugged, you were forced. He's wrong, so very wrong." He wants to go and kill something, or someone, because some fucking bastard has told his brother that he wanted to be raped. He is filled with fury and he's already got tears in his eyes for Sasuke.

Sasuke doesn't say anything and Itachi can't contain his fury and it boils out into the air as killing intent and Sasuke flinches.

"But... I'm a good ninja," Sasuke insists, "How could that have happened to me if I didn't want it? He's right. I know he's right."

"He's not," He snarls and Sasuke flinches again. He tries to calm himself but it's not working. "Please, Otouto, tell me who said these things to you. Please." He's begging his brother but Sasuke isn't listening.

"I was stupid. Careless. I should have been able to kill him before, should have been able to kill him when he touched me and took my clothes." Sasuke's voice is faint and he isn't there anymore, his eyes are wide and blank and his sharingan is whirling and Itachi knows that he's reliving what happened to him.

"Tell me, oh please, Otouto, please tell me who." Tears are running down Itachi's face and he has Sasuke in his arms and he can't let go because he thinks that if he lets go, he'll never get Sasuke back.

Red eyes blink slowly and Sasuke looks up at him, "Do you want me too?"

Itachi breaks. He shatters into a million pieces.

He comes back to his body with his father shaking him and his brother screaming and his mother crying and he doesn't know what has happened and it's horrible because all he can remember is that his baby brother asked him if he wanted to have sex with him.

He sees Sasuke huddled in the corner again and pulls himself from his father's hands and lunges at his brother. He pulls Sasuke into his arms and starts petting his hair, "Nonononono-" He rocks his baby brother back and forth and his father is trying to pull him from his brother but he has to protect Sasuke. He can't let him go.

"Itachi!" Fugaku yells at him and he can't bring himself to care that his father is yelling, even though Fugaku has never before raised his voice at either of his sons.

"Nonononono-" Itachi continues to rock back and forth and he won't let go of Sasuke, "No, Otouto, no, never, I'd never... It's wrong... I love you so much, no, Sasuke, no, never."

Sasuke is still screaming, but he's holding Itachi too now, and Itachi buries his face into Sasuke's neck, his hands tightening around his brother. Sasuke grabs the back of Itachi's neck and suddenly he's completely calm, he's stopped crying and moving, and he's composed.

"Itachi!" Fugaku yells again and then stops.

Itachi forces himself to let go of Sasuke, unclenching each finger one by one, letting Sasuke's shirt go and he leans back. He reaches out and with trembling hands straightens his brother's shirt and smoothes his hair back. He forces a wavering smile to his face and pets Sasuke's unruly hair. Sasuke stops screaming and stares at him.

"An-Aniki?" Sasuke stutters out and Itachi pets his forehead, his cheeks and his neck to make sure that Sasuke is still in one piece, because he can't see Sasuke's mind and he can't put it back together, but he can make sure that his baby brother's body is okay and unharmed.

"I love you," He whispers fiercely and Sasuke just keeps staring at him.

"Itachi-chan." His mother touches his shoulder and he looks to his side to see her kneeling beside him, "Itachi-chan, what happened? What's wrong?"

Itachi shakes his head. He'll tell them what his little brother asked him when Sasuke isn't there. He can't tell them while Sasuke is under his hands and safe. Protected.

"Otouto," He whispers, "It was never your fault. Never. You have to believe that, okay?" He strokes his thumb over Sasuke's cheek and Sasuke leans into the gentle touch. If his heart could break any more, it would have.

He reaches out and pulls their mother into their small circle and passes Sasuke into her arms. Sasuke doesn't want to let go of his hold on his neck, but Itachi just kisses his forehead and moves back. He watches as Sasuke's grasping hand falls to his lap and the boy is pulled into their mother's hug.

He looks at his father and Fugaku follows him out of the room.

"Itachi," Fugaku questions, "What happened in there?"

"Someone has been-" He swallows hard around the lump in his throat, "Someone told Sasuke that he wanted it."

His father's face is completely blank and then rage surfaces and he's suddenly proud of being this man's son.

"What?" Fugaku hisses out as though he is a snake and his wrath is almost tangible.

"Someone at the Academy must know what happened over the summer and told Sasuke- told my baby brother - that he _wanted it_." His hands clench into fists and his nails cut into his palms. Fugaku's eyes narrow and he snarls.

"Do you know who could be telling Sasuke such evil lies?"

From the look in his father's eyes, Fugaku has an idea of who this person could be and Itachi lunges forward, grabbing his father's yukata in his fists.

"Who!?" He has to know. He doesn't care what his father thinks of him, he has to find out who would say such a thing and he has to punish him. Hurt him. _Kill him._

"Itachi," His father is prevaricating and he won't let him do that.

"No! Tell me who you told!" He slams his father up against the wall, chakra running up and down his body and his adrenaline is pumping and he can't stop himself from slamming Fugaku into the wall again. "Tell me!"

His father's face is going red and he's gasping for air and Itachi realizes that his hands are no longer entangled in his father's yukata but around his neck, and also that his sharingan is active because his father is moving very slowly.

"-tachi-" Fugaku gasps at him and he lets the older man go and backs away, staring down at his hands. He can't believe what he's almost done.

He can't say that he's sorry though, because he isn't.

"Father," His voice is calm again and he deactivates his bloodline limit, "I need to know who you told at the academy."

Fugaku is slumped against the wall with a hand at his throat as he breathes in little gasps, "-Itachi-" He coughs painfully and Itachi just watches him, "I only told one person, only one."

"Who?" His voice is frighteningly cold and he feels like he's riding something that could be called the killing edge. It's worse than just feeling so angry that he spews out killing intent without meaning too because riding this edge is eating at his soul and he won't be able to go back to normal, or at least as normal as he ever is, without killing someone. It's pushing at him and he has to fight, has to kill, needs the release of death in his hands.

"Tatsuo Sasaki." Fugaku tells him and he snarls. Sasaki is Sasuke's Academy sensei.

His rage is running cold and he barely notices his father scrambling behind him as he stalks to his room and grabs his gear. He dresses efficiently in his black ninja clothing and his father is trying to talk to him but he can't hear the words through the noise in his ears from his fury.

He jumps onto the window sill and leaps out into the air. He utilizes the shushin and arrives at the Academy in seconds. His sharingan is active again and his lips twist upwards into a smirk as he sees that most of the sensei's are gone. Sasaki is not.

He waits in the shadows where no one can see him until Sasaki is alone in his classroom.

Sasaki gasps when he feels the cold bite of a live blade at his throat. "Wha-"

"Shh," He croons into the man's ear and Sasaki stutters to a halt. "I have questions for you." Itachi isn't ANBU yet, but he's in consideration for the position. It won't be hard for him to strew the man's body over the entire classroom and not leave any evidence behind. It won't be hard for him to kill the bastard and get away with it.

Sasaki is too afraid to nod because the blade of the ninjatō is already parting the flesh under it.

He keeps his weapons at their peak conditions, and it shows in his work.

"You have the Uchiha boy in your class," Itachi growls out and Sasaki murmurs a quiet yes. "You were told that he was assaulted over the summer." Sasaki agrees again. "Explain to me why you are telling the Uchiha child that it is his fault that he was raped."

"I-" Sasaki swallows and the ninjatō digs deeper into his flesh as his throat works, "I didn't."

"You are lying." He allows the man; no, not man; his _prey_, one more chance and lets him feel his intent. It's worse than regular killing intent because it's coming from the edge that Itachi is ridding.

He won't be satisfied until someone has died.

"I-" Sasaki starts to tremble and the blade leaves cuts on his throat every time he touches it. It takes only moments for Sasaki to break, "He's so beautiful," He whispers.

He can feel his cold anger get colder and he know, he _knows_ what his prey is thinking. "Beautiful." He says flatly and Sasaki nods.

"So pretty. Soft. Tender."

"You desire him." Itachi says and Sasaki nods again.

"I want him so badly. He's been taken already. I'd be gentle. It wouldn't hurt as much as the first time. I can be gentle, I know I can," Sasaki is trying to beg for his life by extolling what he thinks are virtues.

Itachi is disgusted. "So you told him that he wanted it."

"I just- I just wanted to direct him into the right frame of mind. It's not that hard." Then Sasaki says something that would have sealed his fate even if he hadn't been trying to manipulate Itachi's baby brother into having sex with him, "You can have him too."

The ninjatō moves before Itachi realizes it and Sasaki's head bounces on the floor, rolling to a stop at the base of the tiered classroom floor.

The eyes of the decapitated head blink at him once and then are still.

He wipes a single drop of blood from his high cheek bone and looks down at the body with no feelings what-so-ever about it

A hand settles on his shoulder and he looks up to see his second cousin standing behind him, dressed in black clothing and white armor.

"Aunt Kichō."

"Itachi." He'd never known that she was ANBU. "Leave the body to us. We'll deal with it."

He doesn't care what happens to him personally, but he does care that Sasuke will care, "What about myself?"

"You protected a fellow ninja from a threat," Kichō places the cute white and red animal mask over her face and he can see her Mangekyō activate through the eye holes. "If he was trying to rape Sasuke-kun, he would have tried to do the same to others. Better to be rid of the trash then to harbor it."

He bows his head to her and shushins away. He stops on the roof of his house and sits down heavily. His sword is still in hand and he contemplates it.

He should have tortured the bastard first, but hearing his baby brother being offered to him like a piece of meat had infuriated him. He pulls a white cloth from his weapons holster and runs it along the blade. The cloth comes away pink and red and he stares at the ruined rag.

Ruined.

He thinks about Sasuke.

He thinks about what the bastard could have done to Sasuke. He thinks about how late he'd been in noticing Sasuke's changing mannerisms. Had he noticed any later his baby brother would have been hurt again. He's promised Sasuke that he wouldn't be hurt again.

The realization that he's almost missed it tears his soul apart.

Tears track down his face and takes several deep breathes.

He has to be strong now. He's stopped it from happening but he takes little comfort in that. Now he has to convince a previously assaulted and manipulated boy that it wasn't his fault.

He also has to find out how far Sasaki managed to go.

He doesn't want to hear another recount of Sasuke's horrific pain, but he has to know.

He drops silently into his room and finds his father.

"Itachi," Fugaku stares at the bloodied rag and then looks at him. "What did you do?"

"ANBU is taking care of the mess," He tells him and calmly begins to strip out of his work clothes. Fugaku bites his lip and nods.

"I understand." And he thinks that his father does understand. If Sasuke was being preyed on at the academy then the other students were in danger as well.

"Where is Sasuke?" He asks quietly.

His father shakes his head, "Still in his room with your mother," Fugaku runs a hand over his hair, "Itachi-"

"It is a ninja matter, Father, and it's over. ANBU knows." Itachi dresses in knee length tan shorts and a blue Uchiha shirt. He hasn't wore this outfit in a while, not since becoming a chuunin, but he thinks that Sasuke will need visual reminders that Itachi is his brother and won't hurt him.

Fugaku doesn't touch him and he leaves his room silently. The door to Sasuke's room is open and he glides inside. Sasuke sees him from where he's cuddled up in their mother's arms.

"Aniki?" Sasuke's voice is hoarse and Itachi smiles gently at his little brother.

"Otouto," He sits cross-legged beside his mother and Sasuke crawls into his arms of his own volition.

"Where did you go?" Sasuke's question seems relatively harmless, but there is nothing harmless about Sasuke. Sasuke is a ninja, an Uchiha and he already has blood on his hands.

Itachi shakes his head and doesn't answer.

Their mother stands and murmurs something about comfort food and leaves. Sasuke's face is buried in his neck again.

"Otouto," He hates to ask, but he needs to know, "The man who lied to you." He pauses then continues in a comforting whisper, "Did he touch you?"

"I-no?" Sasuke sounds confused and Itachi grinds his teeth together in anger. "I mean, he didn't touch me... there."

He sighs in relief and then tenses. "Where did he touch you?" If Sasuke is confused about his answer it means that _something_ happened.

"He... kissed me." Sasuke's face screws up in distaste, "I didn't like it. But maybe- he was right though. If I didn't want it, I could have stopped-"

"No," Itachi leans away from his baby brother and looks into his eyes, "Sasuke, what happened was not your fault. It was never your fault. What Sasaki said, it's not true."

Sasuke's eyes go wide and he pushes away from him, "You- how do you know who-"

"He will never hurt you again." Itachi promises fiercely and Sasuke is as taunt as a drawn bowstring and then he relaxes into Itachi's hold again.

"Okay," Sasuke mumbles.

Itachi rocks his brother back and forth and they sit in silence for a bit.

"Aniki?" Sasuke spoke very softly and Itachi pressed his cheek to the top of his brother's hair. "You killed him, didn't you?"

There is no point in denying it. "I did."

"Good," Sasuke whispers intensely, "He deserved it, didn't he? I mean, if he was lying about- I knew I didn't want it. He lifted my shirt and touched my chest and he kissed me and he said that I could stop him at any time. All I had to do was say something. But he insisted that if I let it happen before, then I wouldn't stop him. The lying bastard forced me to let him do that to me."

"It's called coercion," Itachi says. "Do you know if he touched anyone else, Otouto?" He can't ask Sasaki anymore and no one is going to be asking the children in Sasuke's class if their sensei abused them. Oh, there would be discrete inquires made to the students by the academy psychologists, but if Itachi were able to point the psychologists in the right direction, it would help.

Sasuke sighs into Itachi's shirt and fingers the uchiwa on his sleeve, "There was one boy," He sighs again, "Sasaki-sensei always talked to him in private. You know, during lunch. And sometimes after school. Manabu-san never got a question wrong though. Do you think?" He looks up at Itachi and Itachi licks his lips.

"Perhaps."

"I'm glad he's dead." Sasuke rolls his head on Itachi's shoulder and closes his eyes.

He thinks that his little brother is stronger than he should have to be. He's glad that Sasuke is as strong as he is though, because he's lived through this again, he's survived and he knows that what happened to him is not his fault; knows that it was forced on him.

As Sasuke falls asleep on his shoulder, Itachi wonders why it's his baby brother that has to live through this. He wouldn't wish this on anyone.

He cradles Sasuke in his arms and hums a lullaby in the back of his throat and pets his brother's feathery hair.

It's over now. It's over.

*****xxXXxx*****


	16. Interlude: Sensei

**Title: **Sensei

**Rating: **M

**Summary: **Sasaki is gone and the Academy needs a new teacher.

**Warnings:** Serious stuff going down here people, get your hanky. Strong language. (No so much with the horrible angsting in this one.)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.

**Author Note:** 'Nother interlude. Iruka and Ibiki and Naruto. I know this doesn't fit in that well with the pace of the story, but it is an interlude and stuffs. And there's some _outsider_ outsider POV too.

*****xxXXxx*****

Iruka Umino looks around the interrogation room with apprehension. He's been called in for something, but he doesn't know what that something is.

Ibiki Morino comes into the room and he quells an urge to flinch from the intimidating man. He is only sixteen after all, and he's never been in the kind of trouble that would require questioning by the second in command at T&I.

"Iruka Umino." Ibiki states and he nods. "Do you know why you are here?" Ibiki asks as he sits across from him and Iruka bites his lip.

"No, Sir."

"You've been a teacher's aid for one year, correct?" Iruka nods and Ibiki looks down to the file he has in his hands. "You applied to become a full teacher over the summer, correct?"

"Yes, Sir." He wonders why he's getting asked all these questions about his preferred occupation.

Ibiki looks him up and down and he tries not to blush. He knows that Ibiki isn't interested in him, but it's disconcerting to be so closely inspected.

"You are gay, correct?" Ibiki's question hits him like a ton of bricks and he chokes.

"Er," He is blushing like mad now and wondering why Ibiki is asking that question, "For the most part," He says, "I mean, I'm partnered with Mizuki Toji right now."

"I see," Ibiki shuffles some paper around. "Toji-san is three years older then you, is he not?"

"He is." The questions are getting very personal and he wonders how far Ibiki is going to take this.

"Are you sexually aroused by males younger than you?"

He thinks that something is wrong, so steels himself and takes the inquiry more serious than he'd started. "I have been."

"How old was the youngest male who got you aroused?"

Something is very wrong with this line of questioning. He wonders if it has to do with the sudden disappearance of Sasaki. "Fourteen." He's never been aroused by anyone younger than fourteen and he's perfectly happy about that, because it's in his age range of acceptability as he _is_ sixteen.

Ibiki nods again and his eyes darken, "Have you ever been sexually abused?"

He goes cold and answers with no inflection in his voice. "No." He's never been abused, not even when he'd been captured by enemy ninja.

"Do you know someone who has been sexually abused?"

"No." He doesn't. It might seem strange to some, but he doesn't know anyone who's had that happen to them.

"Have you been trained to handle rape survivors?"

"I have the required minimal training." All teachers get a minimum of four weeks of training to deal with abuse victims of varying types. It's a part of being a teacher at the academy. Children don't usually want to be killers unless they're broken in some way. Most of the time it's physical abuse, sometime mental, but rarely do academy students get into a situation where they are sexually abused. One of the points in training at the academy is how to handle those situations and survive if you can't escape. "I also have several courses scheduled to enhance my knowledge." He adds.

"I see that," Ibiki taps the paper in front of him.

He wants to ask Ibiki some questions, but he is the one under review.

"What would you do if you saw evidence of the sexual abuse-," Ibiki pauses and he can see then that the man is trying to stay as impartial as possible and that it's not really working, "-of a child?"

Fury boils in him and he snarls, "I'd find out who did it and kill them."

Ibiki looks pleased with his answer. "Do you know why Tatsuo Sasaki is no longer at the academy?"

"I don't," He responds and then he puts it together.

All the hints were there. Ibiki was asking about his intentions to become a teacher when the academy was missing a teacher. He was asking about young children in regards to sexual arousal and Iruka's teaching in a place full of children.

"That bastard!" He erupts from his chair and is stalking from wall to wall like a caged animal. "That bastard, he-" he rounds on Ibiki and leans in close, "Where is he?" He hisses into Ibiki's face, "I'm going to tear him limb from limb."

Ibiki is ten inches taller and six inches wider than him. Iruka is not thinking rationally though; he wants to know where the bastard is so he can kill him. Painfully.

"In ashes, spread over the border roads between Hi no Kuni and Kaze no Kuni." Ibiki smiles at him and Iruka snarls.

"You shouldn't be smiling, you cold-hearted bitch. A child was molested."

"I know. Manabu Murakami will be one of your new students."

Iruka sits, his rage burnt out, though maybe it is only simmering in the back ground now. "I... You're giving me a class?"

"Yes," Ibiki sets the folder on the table, "You've consistently had good scores for all of the tests administered to aids, as well has never having a hint of suspicion placed on your loyalty to Konoha. You've answered my questions truthfully and you've hidden nothing from me."

He blinks slowly, "Are- Do all teachers go though questioning about their personal life?"

"They do now," Ibiki growled. "Even one managing to slip through the cracks is too much. Murakami-kun has given his statement and he's been treated. He's going to need someone kind and compassionate as his sensei, someone who will be ready to help at a moment's notice, as well as being able to stand back and let him do his own thing."

Iruka understands. "Yes, I can do that."

"You are the youngest of all the teachers ever selected, Umino-san," Ibiki points out to him, "You have to be better than anyone else because of that."

"I understand."

"There are also three special students in your class, along with Murakami-kun." Ibiki leans back as if to watch his reaction from a better viewpoint, "Three geniuses."

"Alright?" Iruka doesn't get it. He's heard of all the genius students that graduated early, Kakashi Hatake and Itachi Uchiha being the foremost to mind.

"All three are five years old. They have decided to try and challenge the academy genin exam at the end of the year. I fully expect them to pass."

"Five years old? Three of them?" He is incredulous.

"Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki."

Iruka's mind goes over the names. He vaguely recognizes the girl's name because she was specifically asked to join the program due to her extreme chakra control and her mental abilities. The Uchiha isn't a surprise, because he's Itachi's little brother. He stumbles over the last name.

Uzumaki. The jinchuuriki. The 'fox-brat' as so many mumble under their breath.

"Oh." He's seen the boy running through the streets before, but he's never paid too much attention to him. He hadn't wanted to influence himself for or against the boy until he was old enough to think for himself.

It seems that he's able to think for himself now.

"Is that going to be a problem, Umino-san?"

"No," Iruka is sort of dazed. He's only heard bad things about the boy, but he sure that whatever he's heard must be wrong, because there was no way a lazy, good-for-nothing, stupid child would manage to get into the academy early. "No, it's- That's fine. I was just surprised."

Ibiki nods, "That's good. Naruto-kun is a good kid. A little rambunctious, but kind. Smart as all hell too."

"You know him, Morino-san?" Iruka cocks his head to the side and blinks at his fellow ninja.

"Boy's always running from the ANBU after doing a prank. He can evade with the best of them," Ibiki laughs and then turns the conversation back to serious matters. "He's also been living on the street for the last year. Sandaime-sama gave him his apartment the first week of the academy."

"What?" Iruka may not have an opinion about Uzumaki, but any child living on the streets is something to worry about.

"Yes." Ibiki cracks his neck with a stretch, "He's managed, somehow, to bring two pedophiles to our attention." Ibiki's face twists, "One was a ninja and the other a civilian who failed out of the academy when he was younger."

"Oh." Iruka doesn't want to think about how Uzumaki knew they were predators.

They sit for a bit and then Ibiki motions for him to lean forward. He does so and Ibiki whispers, "They're not the only ones that have been abused."

Iruka doesn't want to know. He doesn't.

But he needs to if he wants to help. "Who?" His voice is just as quiet as Ibiki's.

"Sasaki was also molesting Sasuke Uchiha."

His hands tighten on the table and before he realizes it, he's dug divots into the metal with his bare fingers and Ibiki is looking at him, impressed.

"Did he- Did Sasaki molest anyone else?" He's calming his rage and he has to think rationally.

But it's so damn hard to do that when he knows that he has less of a chance than a snowball in hell to get three of his new students to ever trust him. Two have been abused by their sensei and street rats trust no one. He knows this intimately.

He may have the house his parents left him, but that didn't mean he always had money for food and water and heat.

"Not that we've figured out yet. It seems that he liked small, dark haired boys," Ibiki tips his chair back onto the back two legs and balances with impeccable precision, his heavy leather coat pooling on the floor, "I did find out that it wasn't the first time that Sasuke-kun had been abused though. ANBU only cleaned up the mess the second time."

"Mess?"He frowns and his brow crinkles in thought, "What mess?" Then his eyes widen, "'Second time'?"

"The mess that Itachi-san made when he decapitated Sasaki in the classroom after finding out what the man was doing to Sasuke-kun."

"And the first time?" Iruka is morbidly curious and he wants to know what happened to the first person who molested Sasuke Uchiha. If Itachi decapitated someone in retribution he can imagine that if it was Uchiha-sama who'd found out the first time the body would be in pieces.

"Konoha Police force cleaned up the first one. The Uchiha kept it out of the ninja courts, but that's not a surprise. I didn't find out until ANBU reported about Sasaki." Ibiki rubs his scarred face, "I got my hands on the report, the one about the perpetrator anyway, and it was messy. The body had been castrated."

Iruka blanches. The thought that Fugaku Uchiha had castrated a man, even one who molested his son, is kind of scary. Especially because it was kept secret for so long.

He breathes deeply and tries to compose himself. He has to deal with this. Three molested children in his class. Three geniuses. Two of the children in both categories.

Those are bad statistics for a single class.

But he'd do it. He was strong enough to do it. And he'd make sure that the children could trust him. He couldn't do anything less.

"Thank you for telling me, Morino-san," Iruka stood and bowed at the waist. It was only proper for him to be polite to someone providing him with information.

"Ah," Ibiki nods. "Just a few more questions, Umino-san."

"Anything," Iruka insists.

"What will Toji-san's response to your promotion be?"

Iruka frowned, "Well, obviously he'll be angry, but he'll get over it."

"Are you sure?" Ibiki tapped a finger idly on the table top, "Toji-san has been a chuunin teacher's aid for what? Five years?"

"Yes, five years. This is his sixth."

"Well, he's been passed over as a full sensei. And the position is going to his lover, his younger lover no less, who's only been an aid for just over a year. Do you really think that he's going to get over it?" Ibiki's eyes are curious and Iruka chuckles.

"I've refused to be nominated for jounin twice, Morino-san. I want to teach and they don't allow full jounin to teach at the academy because they're too valuable to Konoha for missions, only special jounin and chuunin can apply for positions in the academy. Even if Mizuki doesn't get over it, he isn't the kind of threat that you think he is. Not to me."

Ibiki flips the folder on the table closed and stands opposite of him, "I think you'll be fine Umino-san." Ibiki taps his chest with a closed fist in half salute and then leaves.

Iruka leaves after him. He's still in the T&I building, but he's never had a problem finding his way around.

The sun is bright outside and Iruka's eyes adjust in moments. He watches the passing people and scans over the roofs with at the various ninja going about their business.

He finds it strange that everyone can do their own thing and have no idea what's going on in other people's lives. He's never been a nosy person, but he's never ignored someone before.

There's a presence at his back and he spins slowly to see who is watching him.

Sharingan eyes stare at him from the top of the T&I building and he lifts a hand in acknowledgment. The figure vanishes and he sighs. He doesn't know who that was, only that it was an Uchiha. At least he knows that Sasuke's family was taking this seriously.

He wonders about Uzumaki though. Does the boy have anyone to lean on? Other that the Hokage, who is far too busy to be dealing with one orphan out of a huge pile of them. Sandaime barely has time for his son and grandson, he wouldn't have a lot of time for the Uzumaki.

**

He spends the next week doing intensive training with the other sensei's in the academy after classes. None of them liked to stay longer than they needed, but they knew that Iruka was going to be filling Sasaki's position.

Most of them knew about the circumstances of his 'retirement'.

On Friday, close to twenty hundred hours, Iruka is laying on the grass, panting in exhaustion. It isn't that the work is hard, but he's still doing shifts at the mission room as well as teaching and being taught. He's had no more than two hours of sleep a night for a week and although ninja are trained to deal with it, no one likes it.

"Neener!" A high pitched voice calls out from the trees surrounding the academy and a streak of pink races through the playground. Iruka manages to lift himself on his elbow just enough to be able to see a streak of yellow follow behind with an exaggerated war cry.

It's Sakura and Naruto.

He's surprised that Sasuke isn't with them. In the week that he's been holding classes, he's noticed that the three never stray far from each other. He thought that it may have been an age thing at first, but now he knows that they've all become very good friends.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto tackles her to the grass and they roll his way. He's too tired to move out of the way and they tumble into him.

He grunts and steadies them as they scramble to their feet, bowing low and apologizing profusely.

"Maa, it's okay kids, it's fine," He yawns and the children look up to finally see who they've bumped into and Sakura blushes. Naruto draws back.

Only a little, but enough for Iruka to see.

"I'm sorry, Iruka-sensei," Naruto digs into the dirt with the toe of his sandal and Iruka feels a flash of pleasure at the suffix. Even after a week of teaching he still feels that high from being called 'sensei'.

"I forgive you, Naruto," He reaches out and ruffles Naruto's hair. Ibiki was right, Naruto is a good child even if he is rambunctious and quick on his feet.

The way the boy partially cowers under his hand makes him angry, but there's really nothing that he can do about it, except make sure Naruto knows he's never going to hurt the child.

"Ano, Sensei?" Sakura bounces in between them and Iruka makes a mental note to ask if anyone knows if she is aware of what Naruto and Sasuke have been through. She's most certainly being protective of Naruto.

"Yes, Sakura-chan?" He turns his attentive expression to the kunoichi-in-training and she smiles at him brightly, her green eyes bigger than he's ever seen anyone's eyes.

"Ano, I've been meaning to ask if I can have a note from you so I can get into the library on the weekends. I've been trying higher level medical techniques, but I need to do further studying of the human body." She smiles again and Iruka can't help but smile back.

"Of course, Sakura-chan," He tells her. He's pleased with how far the three geniuses in his new class have gotten since the beginning of the year.

She's talking to him and he's listening, but he's staring covertly at Naruto, who is standing behind her. The way Naruto follows his every movement and tracks his hands is definitely the actions of someone who's been abused, because small children don't track an adult's hands that closely unless they think that the adult is going to strike them. Not that Iruka is an adult, but he is in a position of authority over Naruto and that seems to make him wary.

He continues to watch Naruto and soon figures out that Naruto is watching him back just as covertly. Naruto is watching to see what he does when he touches Sakura, ruffles her hair or pats her shoulder. Iruka doesn't mind that Naruto is looking out for his friend, it just makes him made that Naruto thinks he has to be the one to look out for his friend. No child should have to be the one looking for plots and pedophiles.

That's what parents and guardians are for.

Then he remembers that Naruto has neither of those.

His heart breaks a little and when he finally waves the children off, he is no longer tired from lack of sleep, he's tired of how the world works and he's weary right down to the bone.

He forgets that he himself is only sixteen and shouldn't have to be worrying about this sort of thing either.

Mizuki finds him an hour later looking up into the sky and randomly counting stars to keep himself calm.

"Are you coming home, Iruka?"

"Soon."

His lover doesn't even blink an eye, he just wanders off and Iruka has to debate whether he wants to keep dating the man. He's not sure he likes how Mizuki has been acting lately.

There's a quiet noise at the tree line and Iruka turns his head in the grass towards it. A pair of bright blue eyes are shining in the moon light out of the shrubbery.

"Naruto-kun?" He sits up and Naruto crawls out of the foliage.

"I don't like him," Naruto whispers to him and he cocks his head to the side.

"You don't like who?"

"That man, the teacher's aid. The one who asked if you were going home." Naruto is still whispering.

"Oh, Mizuki's okay," Iruka crosses his legs under his body and relaxes into an open position, "Are you alright?" He's worried about Naruto being out in the dark at night. Children his age should have been in bed earlier. Even Sakura would have gone home an hour ago and gone to bed.

"I haven't got my key." Naruto looks ashamed and ducks his head, "I was just going to sleep in the trees until tomorrow and then get a replacement key for my apartment."

Anger burns in Iruka and he shakes his head, "Did someone take your house key from you?"

"No, no. The civvies can't pickpocket me and the ninja don't care for the most part. No, I just lost it."

Iruka smiles sadly at the boy, "So you have nowhere to go? Why don't you go to the Hokage Tower? I'm sure that someone could put out a cot for you in a corner somewhere for a night. Sleeping in the trees should be a last option resort, Naruto-kun."

Naruto looks away and curls his body up, grabbing his knees with his arms and holding tight.

"I was told to leave," He murmurs and Iruka almost didn't hear him.

"You-" Iruka is astonished, "You were told to leave?"

"Yes, Sir."

"I know that you and the Hokage are close, Naruto-kun. Do you know why you were told to leave?"

"'Cause I'm me," Naruto's eyes are wide and tearing up.

Iruka feels his heart ache and he closes his eyes. Naruto is the picture perfect orphan boy and it kills Iruka to see him like this.

One thing he does know is that he shouldn't offer to take the boy home with him. Not after what T&I suspect happened to him.

He reaches out slowly so that Naruto can analyze his every move and pets Naruto's hair. Naruto doesn't move away. He strokes down Naruto's arms and moves slowly closer to the boy. Naruto still doesn't move.

He's sitting right next to the boy and holding him with an arm around his shoulders soon enough, and then to his surprise Naruto crawls into his lap and winds his arms around his neck. He holds Naruto close and the boy sniffles into his chuunin vest.

"Naruto?" He's questioning tone is less than an exhalation of air but Naruto hears him anyway.

"Iruka-sensei. Can-" He stops then starts again, "May I go-" He pauses again then leans back and looks into Iruka's warm brown eyes, "Sleep at your place?" His last try at talking is childish as though he were but a child. Which he is.

"Of course," Iruka rocks Naruto back and forth for a while and the child starts to doze in his arms. When he moves to stand up, Naruto startles but calms quickly when he murmurs reassurances into the boy's ear.

"Dun hurt me, kay, 'Ruka-sensei?" Naruto's words are slurred with sleep and Iruka presses his nose into Naruto's hair and can smell sunshine and lemons and dust.

"I won't, Naruto-kun. I won't ever hurt you."

When he gets home, Mizuki has left a note on the kitchen table that he's taken a mission that will last for a few days, just over the weekend, and not to worry about him. He wasn't going to worry anyway.

He settles Naruto on the couch with a pillow that the boy curls up around and a thick winter blanket because it sometimes gets cold in his house even with the heat turned on.

He doesn't undress the boy.

Iruka watches him sleep for a few minutes and wonders if anyone has ever put Naruto to bed before. He doesn't think so, but he could be wrong. Naruto didn't fight with him as he rolled him up in the blanket and gave him a kiss on the forehead.

He dresses for bed in his room and puts his old clothes in the hamper for wash day. He wonders if Naruto has more than two outfits. From what he can remember from living alone when he was eleven he never had more than two sets of clothes.

Well, Naruto had someone looking out for him now. Naruto had him and he would be damned if he'd let anything else happen to the child.

**

A hand on his shoulder wakes him up early in the morning just as the sun is dawning and he groans. It's Saturday and it's first day off from both the academy and the missions office. He opens his eyes to see a mop of unruly blond hair and bright blue eyes.

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto pokes him in the shoulder again and he's just glad that Naruto isn't going to jump on him like most five year old's would, "Sensei! It's time to get up!"

"Alright, alright," He pulls himself up and rubs his eyes, "Jeeze, what time is it anyway?"

"It's five thirty," Naruto exclaims brightly, "I wanna say thank you!"

"For what?" Iruka is truthfully puzzled at why the child wants to thank him, so he asks in a blurry voice and Naruto scoffs, which is one of the most adorable things Iruka has ever seen.

"Letting me sleep here!" Naruto tells him loudly and Iruka rubs at his temples with chakra-laced fingers. He doesn't have a hangover, but the pressure behind his eyes lessens and he sighs.

"You don't need to thank me, Naruto-kun."

"But I wanna!"

"Okay, I give, you can thank me," He just wants Naruto to stop yelling at him. It's too early in the morning for this.

"Yatta!" Naruto bounces on his toes, "You gotta get dressed!"

"Okay, I'm up, I'm getting dressed," Iruka pulls himself from his warm bed and herds Naruto out of his room so he can dress for the day.

He doesn't have much in the way of off-duty clothes, but he manages to find a tee-shirt with a witty saying on it and a pair of loose blue jeans. He fills the seams of the pants with senbon and wraps his weapons pouch around his leg.

He may be off duty but he feels naked without having some weapons with him.

"Alright Kiddo," He exits his room to find Naruto just outside the door and still bouncing, "How are you planning on thanking me?"

Naruto grabs his hand and hauls him down the stairs and out the front door. "There's this place yah see, that opens up at quarter to six just for me!"

He thinks horrible things about a place that will open for fifteen minutes so they can serve the Jinchuuriki without anyone else knowing, but he's thankful that there is somewhere that Naruto can go.

Ichiraku's Ramen stand is lively for this early in the morning and he watches at the owner and his daughter invite Naruto and himself to take a seat and order up. Iruka has never had ramen for breakfast before, but if Naruto wants ramen for breakfast then Naruto will get ramen for breakfast.

He is surprised to see that there are two other people at the stand and that the owner hasn't kicked them out so they don't see him serving Naruto.

"And Ojii-san opens early so I don't miss any of my training! He said that he wouldn't ever open early unless he really likes someone, and that means that he really likes me!" Naruto tells him while eating quickly, an arm curled around the bowl in front of him.

He feels sort of bad about his earlier thoughts. Ichiraku's open early because they like Naruto and they don't want to interrupt his training, not because they are ashamed to let him eat there.

Naruto pulls out a fat little frog wallet when they've both eaten and pops it open. Iruka is just a little stunned at the amount of money that Naruto has when he starts to peel off some bills and pays for their food.

"Naruto-kun-," Iruka starts to say and Naruto just grins up at him.

"I've been practicing my sealing, Sensei! See!" He holds the frog wallet out to Iruka and the new sensei lifts the green monstrosity. It vanishes from his hands and appears back in Naruto's hands. "I put a seal on Gama-chan so that no one can take him unless they have my exact chakra!"

No one can fake Naruto's chakra, not with that taint of red in the blue. Iruka is very good at sensing chakra though, and he knows that most ninja would never even feel the red Kyuubi chakra.

"Very impressive, Naruto-kun," Iruka praises Naruto and the boy blushes and looks down.

"Yeah," He stops and Iruka reaches out and lifts his chin up so they look each other in the eye, "Sensei?" Naruto can see something in his eyes even though he's tried to hide it and finally he smiles.

"I'm proud of you." He doesn't mean for the sealing work, though he is proud of Naruto for that. He's proud that Naruto is being open with him, and trusting him. It's hard to trust after someone has abused your trust.

"Oh," A shy smile lifts Naruto's cheeks and he looks down then back up with new resolve, "Thank you, Iruka-sensei."

They leave Ichiraku's and Iruka is going to ask what Naruto wants to do for the day when the boy lets go of his hand and rubs the back of his neck.

"Naruto-kun?"

"Um, I sorta have plans for this morning, Iruka-sensei," He says and Iruka doesn't want to intrude, so he tells Naruto to be safe and have fun and lets the boy run off to wherever he's going.

It's not like he could keep Naruto with him all the time anyway.

But at least he's making headway into getting the children to trust him. Once one does, the others are more likely to follow.

*****xxXXxx*****


	17. Manabu

**Title: **Manabu Murakami

**Rating: **T

**Summary: **Nine year old Manabu Murakami hadn't known that Sasaki was touching someone else, so when he finds out that the other kid is younger than him, he decides that he should provide Sasuke Uchiha with a good role-model.

**Warnings:** Serious stuff going down here people, get your hanky.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.

**Author Note:** Coming up on the last couple of chapters I think, but don't quote me on that. I've already told you guys that Tensai was supposed to be one chapter and then Sharingan was supposed to be one chapter so... yeah. Pretty much everything I write for these two stories are done by the seat of my pants *lol*

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He's morbidly curious. He doesn't know why, but he wanted to know how far Sasaki-sensei went with Sasuke-kun when he found out that the bastard teacher was touching the smaller boy as well.

He's not a genius, not like the three at the head of the class, but he is in the top five, which is more like the top two since the three five year olds are doing all four years of the Academy in one year. It's impressive for him to be near the top. But he even though he knows he's not a genius, he knows what Sasaki did was wrong, and he knows that if it had gone on much longer, he would have killed himself.

To get rid of the pain, at the very least.

Manabu Murakami watches Sasuke play with his blond and pink haired friends. All three of them are more subdued than usual, and Manabu knows why.

He wonders if Sasuke has told his friends what happened. He certainly hasn't told anyone, not his friends, not his siblings and sure as hell not his parents.

His parents know, obviously, but he never told them and he never speaks of it, not to them.

He barely even talks to the counselor.

The three youngest students call out to Iruka, and Manabu frowns. He doesn't trust the new sensei. Not even after having had him in the class for the last few months.

"Sasuke-kun," He walks over to the smaller brunet and draws him away from Iruka-sensei, "How did you do on your last test?"

He knows already that Sasuke got a perfect score because Sasuke always gets a perfect score, but he wanted the boy away from the teacher. He doesn't trust the teachers.

"I did well," Sasuke follows him away from Iruka-sensei and they end up near the swings. Manabu sits in one and Sasuke's gaze shifts from him to the other swing and then back to him. "Why?"

Manabu is used to Sasuke being blunt. He's an Uchiha and from what Manabu has seen, all Uchiha's are blunt and cold.

He debates opening the conversation to what he really wants to talk about, and then steels himself. "I was hurt too." Sasuke just gives him a blank stare and Manabu lowers his head, looking away, "Sasaki-sensei... he hurt me too."

"Don't call him that," Sasuke hisses, suddenly angry and Manabu looks up in shock. Sasuke's eyes are burning with some kind of hatred. It's the most emotion he's seen Sasuke show ever since they started the same class. Even when Sasuke plays with Sakura-chan and Uzumaki, Sasuke is reserved.

"What do you mean," He asks and Sasuke glowers.

"Don't call him 'sensei'. He isn't. He wasn't," Sasuke takes a deep breath and calms himself and Manabu feels like he should shut up. Sasuke is young. Way too young to be in his class, and way too young to be talking about things like this. "He was a bastard that hurt me. Hurt us," He amends and his eyes lower like Manabu's had. "He was no sensei."

"Oh." Manabu thinks about what Sasuke's said and realizes that he agrees with him. He wonders why it is that Sasuke is the one comforting him, making him feel better when he'd been trying to make Sasuke feel better.

"Manabu-kun," Sasuke finally sits in the free swing beside him and he watches the boy kick his feet in the dust, "Sasaki wasn't a sensei, but Iruka-sensei would never hurt us. He'd die for us."

Manabu thinks about that. "Why are you so trusting?" He's been despairing about what happened to him and he just can't wrap his mind around the fact that Sasuke is dealing with it better than him.

"Sasaki didn't hurt me as much as he hurt you," Sasuke murmurs and Manabu straightens up, far more alert that he had been. "He only... touched me. And kissed me."

A feeling of anger rises and Manabu squishes it down. He shouldn't be jealous or angry that Sasuke got hurt less than him. He should be happy that the bastard didn't go as far with Sasuke as he did with himself. He hates himself for his anger, but he can't stop it.

Sasuke can see it in his eyes and his own dark eyes fill with something that Manabu knows; can recognize.

Self-hatred. Anger. Shame.

"Sasuke-kun?" He whispers and the Uchiha blinks and the emotions are gone.

"He wasn't the first to touch me," Sasuke mutters and Manabu feels horror fill him.

Then he feels fear. "Is- Is it going to happen to me again, too?" He can barely get the words out, but he has to know. He has to know if it was him, if it was because he drew people like that to himself.

He can see the pattern that Sasuke has painted for him with seven simple words.

Sasuke growls, "No. No, you have it wrong," He reaches out and Manabu flinches, doesn't know why he finches because Sasuke is so much smaller than him, but Sasuke doesn't let that deter him and the five year old grasps his shoulder, "It's not us. It's nothing we did. It was them. It was all them and we did nothing wrong."

Manabu blinks back tears, "You know," He says softly, "I was gonna try and help you," He sniffles and wipes his eyes with his sleeve.

He started wearing clothing that covered him from head to toe as soon as Sasaki started to touch him.

"You don't need to do that," Sasuke says gently and Manabu gives a weak chuckle. "We can help you."

Manabu frowns then, "'We'?" He asks and Sasuke's eyes turn to track Uzumaki playing on the jungle gym. Manabu's eyes widen and he sucks in a startled breath. "Him too?"

"He lived on the streets," Sasuke murmurs so that Manabu can barely hear him.

His face twists and he can't help but ask, "How could you guys possibly trust Umino-san?"

Manabu has never once called Iruka anything but Umino-san.

"He's a good man," Sasuke says calmly and Manabu sneers. He's jaded, he knows that, but he can't help but think that every adult has a hidden agenda. That what happened to him won't be the end of his pain. Someone else will take advantage of him.

He knows that he'll be injured in the line of duty. He knows that he may be... raped... again when he's working as a ninja. He knows that he may have to watch a teammate be hurt without being able to do anything about it.

He doesn't like these thoughts. Not at all.

But he can't stop them.

Sasuke drops his hand, letting go of his shoulder and kicks himself back on the swing. He rocks back and forth looking up into the sky.

"It only seems like the end of the world," He tells Manabu and the elder of the children copies him, looking up in the sky and kicking at the ground, forcing his body into a half centrifugal motion on the swing.

It doesn't take long before Sakura and... Naruto... join them at the swing-set. Sakura pushes Sasuke and Naruto stands at the edge of the swings. Manabu looks him over.

Naruto doesn't look like he lived on the streets. He doesn't look like was hurt either.

But then he remembers that even though Naruto is smaller than even Sakura, he's almost a year older than Sasuke.

Something flashes in Naruto's eyes and suddenly he can see what he saw in Sasuke. And he can believe that Naruto was hurt as well.

He decides right then and there that he's not going to follow along with everyone else from then on. He's not going to shun Naruto because his parents say that the Uzumaki boy is bad news.

"Can you push me?" He asks Naruto and Naruto smiles at him like a sun beam breaking through the clouds on a rainy day.

He has to wonder, as Naruto gently pushes him so that he's matching Sasuke's height, just how many people are actually nice to the blond.

He thinks that it's not a big number.

Maybe that's one of the reasons that the youngest members of the class like Iruka; because he's nice to Naruto.

Manabu just hopes that Iruka's not _too_ nice to Naruto, that Iruka doesn't like Naruto _too_ much.

When the class is called back in from lunch, Manabu makes sure that he's in the middle of the crowd to avoid standing out. He chooses his regular seat in the back corner of the room. It's a bit of a surprise when the Trio seat themselves around him. Sakura is to his right, towards the aisle and Sasuke is on his other side. Naruto sits directly in front of him, as though protecting him from Iruka's view.

He wonders when it changed from him wanting to help and protect Sasuke to being helped and protected by Sasuke. And his friends.

Iruka starts their lessons again, and Manabu can see that the protective circle around him has drawn some attention. But it's not Iruka who's looking, it's the other kids.

He glowers at them and they turn back to the front, watching Iruka instead.

They go over the Hokage's; the Shodaime, Nidaime, Sandaime and Yondaime. Manabu knows all of this already, as do his new protectors.

A piece of paper is tapped on the back of his hand and he looks down to see a note from Sakura. He looks over to her then back at the paper. He wonders how she managed to move the paper without touching it, but takes it.

He's curious, but he doesn't open it. Not until Iruka is facing the blackboard.

He finds that it's just an invitation to hang around with the Trio after class while they wait for Sasuke's older brother to pick him up.

He figures that he may as well hang out with them. He's finding that he likes them.

Class flies by and when they're dismissed, he follows Naruto down the tiered classroom and fidgets more than a little when the blond stops to talk with Iruka. Sakura takes his hand and draws him away. He's thankful to her and leaves, hand still clenched in hers.

Sasuke is already outside, sitting on the steps. Manabu frowns. He never saw Sasuke leave the class room and he has to wonder how the kid got out without him seeing.

"Chakra exercise," Sasuke answers his unasked question and nods to Sakura. She casually turns to the wall of the building and starts walking up the side.

Manabu stares, eyes wide and mouth dropped open.

"... the heck?" He gapes a little more and she walks back down the side.

"It's usually taught to genin," Sakura tells him with a smile.

"That's, er, pretty awesome." Manabu has to admit that walking on vertical surfaces is pretty awesome. He knew the Trio were good, but to know a genin skill is amazing.

Naruto runs out of the door then, almost bowling right into him. He flinches away from the touch and Naruto doesn't seem to mind.

Sasuke reaches into a pocket and pulls out seven rocks.

Naruto crows and does the same, quickly followed by Sakura.

"What are you doing?" He has to ask. Sure, he's a kid too, but playing with rocks? That's a new one. He outgrew rocks over a year ago.

"Playing Pass the Rock," Sasuke says as the other two sit in a loose circle. "Would you like to play?"

"No thank you." The game doesn't sound interesting to him, and he doesn't really want to butt in on their game. And it is _their_ game because he can feel something in the rocks that they're passing around. The rocks feel like them. And he can feel that every time they touch some else's rock, the feeling changes.

He figures that they're using chakra to do it. Obviously, given what he'd seen Sakura do, they have very good control of their chakra.

He spends some time watching them and finds himself relaxing. They aren't asking him questions or demanding answers. They aren't watching him with pity in their eyes. They're talking to him, telling him about their day and who their favorite person is and so on. It's nice to be treated like a normal kid again. It's been months since that's happened.

A shadow falls over him and he looks up to see a boy two years older than him, an eleven year old with dark hair, standing over him. He's got lines under his eyes that make him look older than he really is. Manabu doesn't know how he does it, but he always seems to be able to correctly guess ages. The give-away to who he is though, is embroidered on his shoulder, a red and white uchiwa fan about an inch and a half big.

"Otouto. Naruto-kun. Sakura-chan."

"Aniki." Sasuke stands up and hugs him. Itachi hugs back tightly and Manabu feels a little jealous. His family won't touch him. Not even his mother.

So this is the genius Itachi Uchiha. Sasuke's older brother.

"Hello. I am Itachi."

"Hello Itachi-san. Manabu Murakami." Manabu stands and gives Itachi a sketchy bow. Technically he's a member of a ninja clan, but a minor clan. The Uchiha's are far above the Murakami's.

Itachi's eyes flash and Manabu barely manages to catch it. He knows in that very instant that Itachi knows who he is. What happened to him.

He resists snarling. He doesn't want any more pity or horrible looks.

He's surprised when he doesn't see that in Itachi's black eyes. What he sees is compassion.

He's not sure how that makes him feel.

Someone at the edge of the academy property calls out his name and he turns to see his own older brother, who's thirteen and a genin, standing there, waiting for him. His brother still has pity in his eyes. He really doesn't want to go home. Not to his parents and family and people who treat him like he's about to fall apart.

He holds up a hand and signals for one more minute. His brother huffs, but nods.

"Are you alright, Manabu-kun?" Itachi asks him gently, looking between him and his brother. He can see the wariness in Itachi's eyes and he shrugs lightly.

"Just my brother. Mother always sends one of them to get me after school."

"She wants to protect you," Itachi murmurs and he shrugs again. She might want to protect him, but she's doing it the wrong way. He can't go anywhere, do anything or even leave the living room without telling them what he plans on doing and where he plans on going. It's starting to wear thin and he wonders if Sasuke has the same problems with his own family. After all, Itachi is here to take Sasuke home.

He reaches out a hand to Naruto, who looks at him in confusion before smiling and shaking his hand, "I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?" The blond asks and Manabu nods.

He waves to Sakura and nods companionably to Sasuke and then walks towards his brother.

He thinks that it's nice to have friends. He thinks that maybe, just maybe, he can get through this if he has someone at his side who understands.

He thinks that he's going to keep being friends with Sasuke and the Trio.

He hopes it'll get his mother mad enough to yell at him again. It would be nice to go back to normal.

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	18. Matriarch

**Title:** Matriarch

**Rating:** T

**Summary:** She's met his team now and she faces several truths that hurt.

**Warnings:** Serious stuff going down here people, get your hanky.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.

**Author Note:** Mikoto budged in. I don't know how. But we've officially collided with Tensai because this is directly after the second chapter of Tensai.

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Mikoto watches the Uzumaki finally leave her house. She has a soft heart, she knows, but she's still startled.

"Mother?" Itachi is standing in the door to the living room where she's looking out the window and she turns to him.

"Itachi-kun, when did you find out that Sasuke-kun is friends with Naruto?"

"I met Naruto-kun two months ago when I picked Sasuke up from the Academy." He tells her and she sighs. She's happy that Sasuke has friends, and she can see that he's friends with Sakura as well, but it disturbs her that her eldest son didn't think to mention Sasuke's relationships outside of their family.

She hopes that Itachi just didn't think to mention it, instead of him purposefully hiding it from Fugaku and herself. She doubts that though. Itachi is over-protective of Sasuke and she's sure he knows that without meeting Naruto face to face, she would have forbidden contact between them. Not because of who Naruto was, but because of his reputation.

She didn't care if they were in the same class, or assigned to the same team. It's a harsh reality, but it's true and she doesn't shy from the truth.

Sasuke comes back inside and Mikoto smiles for him, "Thank you for bringing your team to meet us, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke gives a little grunt then sighs, "I'm going to be doing a lot with them. Kakashi-sensei says that a team is like family."

"Kakashi?" Mikoto's left eyelid twitches, "Kakashi Hatake."

"Yes," Sasuke cocks his head to the side and looks at her with something in his eyes. For all the emotions that she's seen before in him, this one is new. This is an assessing look.

She doesn't like it. Sasuke is looking at her like she's a danger to him or his friends or his position. She would never be a danger to him and she'd thought that she'd proved that a year ago.

She murmurs under her breath and the look in Sasuke's eye fade. "I knew Obito," She tells him. She wonders why he didn't tell her before, but is sure that it's because he knew she would have protested his team. She would have gone to the Hokage and asked about Hatake as his team leader; would have found out that Naruto was on his team. She would have demanded that he be removed from such a team.

But apparently her son is friends with the Container. She'll let it go because now that she's met him, he's not as bad as she had thought before their meeting. The boy is polite - enough - and he had looked at her with something in his eyes that she's seen in Sasuke's.

She thinks about the look that Naruto had and her heart clenches. She doesn't know why.

No, she does know why, but she has to tell herself that Naruto looked at her like that because he'd never had a mother. She has to believe that.

But she can't.

"Sasuke-kun," She licks her lips and quells her nervousness, "Where does Naruto-san live?"

"He has an apartment in the Uraya district," Sasuke says and her heart skips a beat.

"By himself?" She has to ask because she knows Naruto's parents are dead and the Council keeps a close eye on the Container. No one has adopted him.

Sasuke's eyes lower and he looks at the floor, "He used to live on the streets; after the orphanage kicked him out."

Now she knows that she will never be able to turn Naruto away. She tries to think of the worst thing Naruto could do, which is kill her entire family, and she realizes that even then, if Naruto came to her, she would hug him and feed him and sing him to sleep.

Naruto's eyes are dark with pain, but he laughs and she doesn't want to see something like what happened to Sasuke happen to any child. Not even the Container.

And she knows that it has. She's gotten very in tune with how to see survivors since the attack on her son and she can see the survivor in Naruto.

Her eyes close and fingers grasp at her sleeve, tugging just a little bit.

"Mother?" Sasuke asks in a worried tone and Mikoto struggles to calm herself. She manages, for the most part, and looks down to her son.

"Has Naruto spoken about his time living on the streets?"

"No," Sasuke hesitates, "But I know."

She prays that he doesn't know what she knows, "What do you know, Sasuke-kun?"

"He was assaulted too." He says and her heart can't stand it and tears well up in her eyes. Without her permission her mind dodges and weaves back to when she'd listened to the whole tale of Sasuke's rape in the judge's quarters and Sasuke's words come back to her.

_'He told me about what he'd done to other children. He liked blonds the best. He told me that it was easiest to get the kids that were new to the streets. He gets them before they learn not to trust anyone. They accept his food and water and sometimes they drink so much water that they don't even know something has happened until they wake up bleeding and hurt and not where they were before.'_

Her hand comes up to cover her mouth because she feels like she's going to throw up. The same man, the one that raped her son...

"Mother?" Itachi is at her side and she doesn't know when he got there. She blinks at him, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Mother, what's wrong?"

Itachi is still so very innocent.

She can't break him again. She won't.

Taking several deep breaths she forces herself into some semblance of calmness and shakes her head, "It's okay, Itachi-chan," His eyes widen and she curses her slip of the tongue, "Don't worry about it. I will deal with it."

"Mom?" Sasuke is frowning and she pets his hair. Mostly to keep herself calm.

"Are you done your chores?" She asks him and he scowls. She needs to get him out of the house so she can talk to Fugaku. Her husband needs to know as well. He is the head of the Police. Civilian and Military.

This would fall under Civilian law, like Sasuke's case had.

She's damned glad that the man is already dead.

Sasuke pouts and shakes his head before grabbing Itachi's hand and dragging him from the living room and out of the house. She wonders how much he's guessed and how much he knows.

He didn't leave her because she wanted him to do his chores. She knows that because he took Itachi with him. Sasuke wanted her to be able to speak without worrying about where her children are.

It still hurts that her youngest son is the more jaded of her children.

She finds Fugaku nursing a tiny cup of warm sake in the kitchen.

He can see something is wrong the minute she walks in the kitchen. He sets his cup down and reaches out, pulling her into his arms. She clutches to him as tight as she can and he soothes her with his presence.

"Fugaku, the boy." She whispers into his chest, "Naruto-kun," He starts when he hears the familiar suffix but lets her continue, "He lived on the streets. Sasuke didn't want to tell me how long."

He doesn't question her, just rubs her back and rocks her from side to side.

It takes a long time before she can say what she needs to.

"He's a survivor." The way she stresses the word 'survivor' tells Fugaku everything he needs to know and his arms tighten around her. It's uncomfortable, but it's real. It's here and now.

"When?" He mutters. He's had more experience with children victims of all kinds. At least this time it's not his own child.

But it is Minato's son.

And it must hurt him almost as badly as Sasuke's assault hurt him. After all, he'd been friends with Minato.

"I don't know. Before Sasuke," She says and he leans back to look at her in question. Her eyes are full of tears because she can't hide them from her husband, "I think- I think it was _him_. Sasuke said that _he_ liked blonds the best."

Fugaku's face twists in fury and his fingers grip her biceps so hard that she grunts with the unexpected pain.

She understands though. The thought of what he'd done to Sasuke, the thought that he'd done it to others; that he'd gotten away with it for so long is maddening and infuriating.

Fugaku hisses in rage and finally lets her go. "Minato's son-" He spins and grabs hold of the counter, "_My_ son-" He is so angry that he's shaking and Mikoto thinks that the counter might just crack under the pressure that he's exerting on it.

"Fugaku," She can be calmer about it this time. It's not her son.

It sounds horrible to think that, even as the one who thought it, but it's true.

Fugaku's shoulders stop shaking and she wraps her arms around his waist, resting her cheek on his back. His breath is shaky and she can feel it as his lungs inhale and exhale under her ear. She thinks he might be trying to cry.

If he does cry, she doesn't think that she could ever forgive him. If he couldn't cry when he found out his own son was raped, why should he be allowed to cry when he finds out his best friends son was raped? It wouldn't be fair to Sasuke and she thinks that she's been through enough in the last year. If Fugaku cries now, after all this time, she'll hate him.

You're supposed to cry for your own family, grieve for your own family.

She finds that she hates herself for thinking such thoughts, but can't stop.

When he's calmed down and his breathing is even again, she lets him go and stands back. He turns back around to face her and his face is dry. It hurts her heart to know that she's relieved.

"Fugaku," She says his name again and he nods.

"I know," He tells her, "I can't go to the Council this time. He's already a ninja. It would be dragged out into the public." He rolls his head back and looks at the ceiling. "I can't do that to Minato's son. Nor my own," He murmurs and she realizes that if it gets out that _that man_ raped Naruto, there would be questions about how he died. And that would lead directly back to Sasuke.

She's glad that he's thinking of his family as well as of Naruto.

"He lives in the Uraya district. Alone. We should help him." She wants to help, she does. What she doesn't want is her husband, the father of her children, to care more about him than he does about his own blood.

It's harsh, unkind, and callous, and she thinks that she might be taking it too far, but it's an emotional response that she can't stop. She would if she could.

"We will," Fugaku tells her.

She agrees and offers up what she can, "Jogen is already seeing Sasuke. It might help Naruto to go to the same counsellor."

Her husband tentatively agrees and they make arrangements to contact Jogen and ask him to include Naruto in Sasuke's weekly appointments in the morning. It's only Wednesday, so they'll give him a week and a half to consider their request. If he needs to reschedule something, that should be enough warning, which is why they aren't going to ask him to consider Naruto coming with Sasuke this coming Saturday.

She's hanging the phone up when the boys come back inside. She sends Itachi upstairs and sits Sasuke down at the table. She doesn't want to have this conversation with her youngest.

"Sasuke, when you said that you knew Naruto-kun had been assaulted; can you tell me how you knew?"

He looks at her and she represses a shiver because his eyes are so empty. "I just knew. I can see it. The same way I knew that Manabu-kun was being hurt by Sasaki."

Instinct, Mikoto thinks. "Have you asked him about it?"

"I don't want people asking me," Sasuke mutters, "Why would I ask him?"

"But you're sure," She tells him and he nods.

Fugaku sits on the other side of Sasuke and her son leans towards his father, letting the older man take some of his weight. She's glad that he isn't as touch-shy has he had been after the attack. "Sasuke," He strokes Sasuke's shoulders gently and Sasuke relaxes, "You haven't asked him, but has he said anything? If you recognized his pain, did he recognize yours?"

Sasuke closes his eyes and leans his head back, onto Fugaku's shoulder. "Yes. He saw it too." He's quiet for a moment and Mikoto thinks that he might not speak again without prompting, but he continues on his own, "He told me about his first week on the streets after the orphanage kicked him out. He told me that he remembered waking up one evening in an alley. He couldn't remember what had happened, just that a nice man gave him food and water and then he fell asleep."

Mikoto flinches. She remembers this from before, remembers hearing this from a different point of view. Sasuke heard both parties confess to him and she desperately wants to help him. And Naruto.

"He said that there was blood in his pants, and he hurt, but he couldn't find any bruises. But Naruto heals fast," Sasuke's voice hasn't wavered and his tone doesn't change, but there are tears crawling down his face and Mikoto can't help but cry as well. "He must have woken up early, because the man wasn't gone yet, he was still in the alley. Naruto saw him. Told me what he looked like.

"I had to tell him that the man is dead. I couldn't let him continue living in fear of _him_ when I knew that I'd killed him." Sasuke laughs a tiny, morbid chuckle, "I told Naruto that I made him pay in full."

"Sasuke," Mikoto takes one of Sasuke's hands, "I am so sorry," She whispers, "So very sorry." He's been through so much and keeps having to relive it; first Sasaki, then becoming friends with Murakami and now Naruto.

"I'm glad," He opens his eyes and looks up at her with a small smile curving his lips, "I'm glad that I could put that to rest for him."

She makes sure that she moves slower than she wants, but she's accidentally faster than she should have been, and she pulls him into a hug. Fugaku wraps both of them in his strong arms and she strokes Sasuke's hair.

She's so proud of Sasuke. So very proud.

She tries to lean back but Sasuke won't let her go, so she keeps hugging him as she asks, "Would it make you uncomfortable if Naruto started therapy with you?"

Sasuke goes completely still and lets her go. She backs up and looks down at him. There's a strange look on his face. She doesn't know what his expression is, it's one she's never seen before and then it clears and he shakes his head.

"I think- I think it would be good. For both of us."

Something inside her relaxes and Mikoto is relieved. She hugs Sasuke again and lets Fugaku take him upstairs to put him to bed. Itachi comes down a few moments later and she finds herself relieved that he wasn't there when Sasuke cried. It was hard enough the first time Sasuke cried and Itachi was there.

"Mother?"

"It's been dealt with, mostly," She tells him, because he's a genius and he'll figure it out the moment Naruto comes by next Saturday to go with Sasuke to Jogen.

And she knows that Naruto will be coming next Saturday even if she has to strong arm Jogen into letting a non Uchiha into his practice and drag Naruto by his ear to the building and sit him in the chair herself.

She doesn't want to have to force Naruto into therapy with Sasuke, but she needs to help him. Both for his own, and Sasuke's sake.

And Fugaku's.

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	19. Kakashi

**Title:** Kakashi

**Rating:** T

**Summary:** Kakashi over hears a conversation and he thinks he might break because he's seen the Mangekyō in Sasuke's eyes and when he hears his sensei's son commiserating with the Uchiha boy, it's too much for him.

**Warnings:** Serious stuff going down here people, get your hanky. Language.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.

**Author Note:** And finally, Kakashi's reaction to finding out that Sasuke and Naruto have been assaulted. Roma-chan has been waiting for this chapter since I started Sharingan :) I hope you guys like it too!

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He's in the trees above the Memorial Stone. He was going to go and talk to Sensei and Obito, Rin and his father. Sakumo Hatake may not have his name carved on the Stone, but it's where Kakashi goes to speak with him because since Sakumo's body was burned, there is no grave for him to visit.

The only reason he's not standing in front of the Stone is because two of his precious, and precocious, students are sitting in front of the Stone in his stead.

He's seen then there before so it's not really a surprise. What is a surprise is that his most hyper student, Sensei's son, is calm.

He feels anger building in him as he remembers just the day before when he'd seen Sasuke activate his Mangekyō. Such an innocent face shouldn't have such horrible eyes. He remembers last year, when the Uchiha started acting so different than they had for several years. He thinks that Sasuke's assault might have been the reason.

No wonder no one told him. The Uchiha's hate him for having Obito's eye.

He forces himself to calm and tunes his ear to their conversation. He'd like to leave Sasuke and Naruto alone, give them privacy, but he can't quite make himself do that. He's too over-protective.

"So you're moving in with Iruka-sensei?" Sasuke asks Naruto and the blond boy looks up at the clouds from where he's lying on his back.

Kakashi doesn't like the twist of Naruto's features.

"Yeah," He says calmly.

Sasuke sighs and slumps a bit into Naruto's shoulder, "Does he know?"

Does Iruka know what? Curious isn't a strong enough word for what Kakashi is feeling. Whatever it is that the boys are talking about, it sounds important.

Naruto pets Sasuke's hair and Kakashi is both glad that Sasuke doesn't shy form the touch and horrified that Sasuke was raped long enough ago that he's recovered this much. Sasuke is only six.

"No."

The gentle way that Naruto says the word is surprising. Hell, everything about this is surprising. Naruto's not jumping around or yelling or shouting or being exuberant. He's... cloud watching.

"It'll be okay if he knows. You know that, right?" Sasuke asks Naruto and Naruto shakes his head.

"You had an entire clan behind you, Sasuke. I don't have anyone."

"To hell with that," Sasuke sits up suddenly at the words and hisses in his anger, "You have us. You have the Uchiha, you have Sakura; you have Kakashi-sensei. Hell, you have Sarutobi, if you would tell him."

"I don't-" Naruto turned his face away from his friend, "I don't want to hurt him."

"He deserves it, Naruto," Sasuke snarls, "He was the one that didn't check up on you. He was the one that didn't overrule the civilians when they petitioned for you to never be adopted. He was the one that didn't make sure you were okay. Fuck, Naruto, you-"

"Shut up," Naruto's brilliant blue eyes, Sensei's eyes, narrow, "You don't know what he's done for me. Ojii-san has always been there for me."

Sasuke sits back with arrogance in his black Uchiha eyes, "Then why do you call him 'Ojii-san' instead of 'Jiji'?"

Naruto flinches. Kakashi could feel the turmoil in the boy even as far away as he is.

Whatever happened to Naruto is important. He needs to know what had been done to Naruto. He can't ask outright because Naruto is a wily kid and would be able to slip out of the conversation without much trouble, but he can listen in. He can overhear.

He will find out.

"Don't go there, Sasuke; don't compare your experiences to mine." Naruto's words hold an explicit order and Sasuke ducks his head. The Uchiha agrees to Naruto's order and it takes them a moment for the tension between them to fade.

Kakashi can hear his heart beat speeding up and he's scared. He's more scared right now then he's ever been in his life, including when Kyuubi showed up and Sensei died.

He thinks he knows what their talking about. No, that's wrong. He doesn't _think_ he knows; he just knows.

"Mother wants you to come over sometime this week. She'd like to talk to you." Sasuke tells Naruto and the blond tsks at his friend and rolls his eyes.

"Do you know why?"

"Yeah."

But Sasuke doesn't tell Naruto why. Or maybe he does, but Kakashi can't hear him.

The blood is rushing too fast in his veins and his heart is beating too loud and his breathing is too harsh. Kakashi takes off in the opposite direction of the Memorial Stone and Konoha because they can't know that he listened in on them and he's about to break.

He can't be in Konoha when he breaks. The last time he broke Sensei was there to hold him back. Sensei isn't here anymore and he can't restrain himself because it hurts so much.

When he finally stops running his mind isn't functioning well enough that he knows where he is but it doesn't matter.

He should have been watching over Naruto. Sensei's son. He shouldn't have given a good goddamn about what the civilians wanted. Sensei's son. He should have protected him. Sensei's son.

Naruto Uzumaki. Naruto Namikaze.

Kakashi falls to his knees, throws back his head and screams.

He screams until his voice is hoarse. He screams until he can't scream anymore.

Tears fall down his face; from his eye and from Obito's.

Naruto was raped.

Sasuke was raped.

He's kneeling on the ground now, hands clenched deep into the soil of the land, his face bowed so far that his chin is pressing tightly to his collarbones, his forehead against the ground. His hitai-ite is wet and his mask is making it hard to breath but he can't bring himself to care.

He pounds a fist into the earth and the crackling of a thousand birds startles him. He stares at his fist, buried in the earth, through his tears and he can see his lightening Raikiri wrapped around his hand. Rage fills him and he screams again and again. He stands up suddenly and hurls himself at the trees surrounding him.

He cuts a clearing in the forest, but doesn't notice.

His energy is drained now and he's lying on the ground, panting and crying.

It's not enough. It still _hurts_.

He feels dead inside. Like the only emotions left are sorrow and sadness, anger and pain.

He stares up at the darkening sky and wonders if he'll ever be able to look Naruto in the eyes again.

Look into Naruto's eyes and see Sensei staring back at him with disappointment.

He'll have to, he thinks, because how else will he be able to teach Naruto and Sasuke and Sakura how to protect themselves?

Kakashi reaches up wearily and strips off his hitai-ite. He pulls his mask down and rubs a hand over his tired face. Obito's sharingan is recording everything that he can see so he closes that eyelid.

"Kakashi," A voice whispers to him from his left, from his blind side, and he turns to see Gai Maito standing at the edge of the clearing that he's made. He's too exhausted to reach up and put his mask back on.

Gai never whispers. Not since he was fourteen and Kakashi's ragged mind is too fatigued to comprehend how bad he must look for Gai to be whispering again.

He doesn't say anything, and Gai seems to know that he needs silence, because there are no more words. There's no Youthful stance, there's no glitter or sparkles or even flashing teeth in the sunlight.

He wonders idly if his breaking has broken his oldest friend.

Gai kneels in front of him but doesn't touch him. Kakashi's jaw quivers and then he's crying again, tears rolling down his face. He tries to tell Gai what's wrong, but words won't come out; all he can do is gasp and stutter and make hurt noises.

He leans forward and Gai catches him, wraps strong arms around him and he lets go.

When he wakes up from his exhausted rest, he's lying on the ground, his head on a folded up vest and his body curled up around a rucksack.

He sits up and wipes dried tears from the corners of his eyes and looks blurrily around the clearing, sharingan eye closed. The sun is just starting to set. There's a small fire going in a hand dug fire-pit and something on a spit, rotating over the flames.

"Kakashi?" Gai asks and he looks around the clearing. The trees have been cleared off to one side and the stumps removed from the ground. Gai's carrying an armful of firewood and Kakashi sighs, closing his eyes.

"Gai." He wants to tell his friend that he's alright so that Gai doesn't worry, but he can't because he's not. Gai sets the wood down by the fire and Kakashi takes in the fact that Gai isn't wearing his vest, or even his Youthful green suit of Power, just a green sweater and blue jeans. "Why are you here?"

The look in Gai's black eyes is sad and Kakashi wishes that he hadn't hurt his friend. "You were throwing out power like a fucking lighthouse, Kakashi," Gai tells him gently. It usually always sounds awkward when Gai swears, but this time it doesn't. "I felt it first and told Sarutobi-sama that I would check on you."

"Aren't you on days off?" Kakashi asks.

Gai smiles at him, a small smile that's just the upturn of the lips, "Hence the blue jeans," He gestures at his pants and sits beside him. "But you're my friend. Just because I'm on days off doesn't mean I won't help you when you need it."

Kakashi takes a deep breath, nodding. He understands. He would do the same for Gai if he ever felt the other man throwing power around like a 'fucking lighthouse'.

He fidgets a bit and his fingers are drawn to the vest he was lying on. He realizes belatedly that it's his own, though the rucksack is Gai's.

He looks himself over and itemizes what he is wearing with what he was wearing when he left his apartment that morning. Gai has stripped him of his vest, his sandals, his wrappings, his hitai-ite, and his face mask. Gai's also taken all his weapons.

All he's wearing at the moment is his blue, long-sleeved shirt and pants.

Gai eyeballs him in a serious manner and he shrugs indolently. He doesn't like it that Gai's taken his weapons, but the rest of it he could care less about. He knows that Gai would never hurt him and he knows that Gai can protect him and that he doesn't exactly need weapons to fight effectively, but it still rankles that Gai thought he needed to take them.

It's not like he's so broken that he's going to gut himself and wait for death like his father did.

"Can you tell me what happened?" Gai asks after a while of watching the meat roast on the spit.

Kakashi shakes his head, "It's not... I can't, no." He won't betray Naruto's trust. If Naruto doesn't want his best friend talking about it, he's not going to talk about it. Not right now. Maybe he'll tell Sarutobi later, when it needs to be told, but right now he can't think of betraying Sensei's son.

Gai gives him a tiny nod of understanding and goes back to turning the spit.

Kakashi rubs a hand over his face and yawns. He shakes his head.

Damn it, he thinks. Chakra exhaustion.

He wonders how many Raikiri's he used when he broke, but doesn't ask. If he used enough power that the ninja in the village could feel him lash out, it was more than he wanted to know.

He realizes that he's jaw is a little scruffy and tries to think of the last time he shaved. He can't remember if it was this morning when he'd woken up, or the morning before.

"Here," Gai holds his hand out and Kakashi recognizes his mask.

Instead of taking the material he closes his open grey eye. He doesn't want to wear it.

There's a rustle and he thinks Gai must have put the mask in his pocket.

"Gai?" He needs to talk to someone, even if he can't say anything.

"Yes, Kakashi?" Gai's tone is mild but curious.

"I think-" He pauses. He's still not in his right mind because the words are getting jumbled in his head, "I think I need supervision for a day or two." Gai's chakra sharpens and Kakashi waves a hand at him in a signal to relax, "I'm not gonna kill myself, I just- I can't be alone for a bit, that's all."

Gai has been just as broken inside as he is right now, so his friend understands, he doesn't need to say anything else.

"Here? Or in the village?"

Kakashi shudders, "I can't go back right now. No, it'll have to be here." He wants to go back though. He wants to go back into the village and hug Naruto tight and reassure Sasuke that no one is going to hurt the blond ever again. He wants to go back to the village and track down the man that raped Naruto and kill him. He wants to go back to the village and massacre the civilians that refused to let him take Naruto in when he was fourteen, saying that he was too young.

He can't go back right now because his head is all mixed up and he can't concentrate.

"Alright," Gai says and Kakashi is relieved that he doesn't have to explain. "I'll send a message to Sarutobi-sama telling him that we'll be out here for a bit."

Kakashi nods his thanks to his friend and lies back again. He's still so tired. His emotions are frayed.

He feels like he's disappointed Sensei and Obito. He didn't protect their family.

He wonders if he'll be able to keep them safe in the upcoming months, never mind years, and regrets passing his team because he's now put them into mortal danger and they've been through so much already.

He doesn't know if he can handle it.

But he'll have too, because he won't trust anyone else with his team. He refuses to think of Sensei's son, of Obito's cousin, getting a different team leader.

He has them now. And he'll keep them.

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	20. Counsellor

**Title:** Counsellor

**Rating:** M

**Summary:** Naruto knew he shouldn't have laughed at Sasuke for having to do therapy. This must be karma.

**Warnings:** Serious stuff going down here people, get your hanky. Language. Therapy.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.

**Author Note:** No notes. None. Nadda. Zip, zero, zilch. Well... A little background for Naruto to clarify what happened to him and why the change of nickname for Sarutobi. It's sad and angsty and not realistic at all, but we're in an AU of a manga. :)

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Naruto glowers in Sasuke's direction and the boy just curls his lips in a smirk at him. Damn it, he knew he shouldn't have gloated about the whole counselling thing; he should have known that Sasuke would get back at him for it.

"Naruto-kun?" Jogen raises an eyebrow and Naruto turns his glower towards the other Uchiha in the room.

"What?" He's allowed to be growly, he's a child, he's been abused, and he's being forced to talk about it. It would look odd if he wasn't growly.

"Can you tell me what happened?"

"Nothing happened," Naruto crosses his arms and sink back into the chair. His kicks out a foot and studies it so he doesn't have to look the man in the eye.

Jogen hunches a little so that his eyes are level with Naruto's and kind of looks up, over his glasses, "Naruto, do you know why you're here?"

"'Cause Sasuke's being mean." Not only would it look odd if he wasn't growly, he actually feels growly about this. He really truly doesn't want to be here. He doesn't want to talk about it.

It feels fresh to him, what happened.

He hadn't remembered the first time, he'd blocked it out, so when he'd come back and seen the man, the one that had raped him when he was small the first time, it had all come rushing back and that was the true reason he'd chosen that man for Sasuke to kill.

Sasuke hadn't wanted to kill an innocent citizen to pretend to get his Mangekyō, so Naruto had had to tell him what had happened.

"Sasuke-kun isn't being mean, Naruto-kun; he's trying to help you."

Naruto pouts for a moment then sighs, "Yeah. I know."

Jogen leans back in his chair, straightening up. "Naruto, how are you feeling? About being here?"

"Pissed off," Naruto mutters, "I'm pissed off and not happy."

"What else?" Damn, but Jogen is good at seeing underneath the underneath.

"Embarrassed. Ashamed. I don't-" Naruto runs a hand through his hair, "I don't want to be here, I don't want to tell you what happened."

"I understand that, Naruto," Jogen's face is almost like an open book, Naruto can read him that well. He's not completely open though, because Naruto is sure that Jogen doesn't give a good goddamn about him personally.

At least he's professional.

"Naruto," Sasuke reaches over and taps Naruto on the leg, "I managed to do this; you can too."

Naruto wants to tell Sasuke to fuck off and die, but he doesn't. Sasuke is needling him on purpose, he just knows it.

"Naruto, can you tell me when you were hurt?" Jogen asks, and Naruto flops his head back, looking at the ceiling. He still doesn't want to look Jogen in the eyes.

"A while ago."

"How long ago?"

The man is digging, but it's his job to, so Naruto can't hold it against him. "-almost two years." Jogen hums under his breath and makes a note on the notepad that he's holding. Naruto frowns, "Are you going to write everything down?" He asks, not really wanting details to be getting around. Notes are bad, they can be stolen.

"No," Jogen tells him softly, like he thinks Naruto is going to snap and rip the papers from his hands, "I don't write comprehensive notes, just mnemonic points so I can remember exactly what you've said or done in these sessions."

"Hn." Great, now he's retreated enough to start sounding like an Uchiha. "Oh," he scowls, "Okay." He really doesn't have a problem with that. Not really.

"So you were five?" Jogen nudges them back on track and Naruto nods, "And you were living on the streets at that time?"

"Yeah," Naruto shrugs his shoulders defensively, "It wasn't so bad." It was that bad actually, but Naruto doesn't want to get into that.

"So you were living on the streets and the man, what did he do?"

"I was cold. A little hungry. He had water and food. So I followed him. I don't remember what happened after that."

"What do you remember from when you woke up?"

Naruto turns his head away and closes his eyes. He doesn't want to talk about this. He really doesn't want to remember. There was a reason that he blocked it out last time.

Sasuke pokes him again and Naruto turns to him and growls in the back of his throat; "Stop it." Sasuke glares at him and Naruto takes several deep breaths.

"Naruto?" Jogen verbally prods him, "Are you okay?"

"No!" Naruto leaps to his feet and starts pacing, "No, I'm not! I don't want to talk about this, I had it all blocked out and now it's all there and I don't want to remember how I woke up and found blood in my pants and saw him leaving me to _die_ in an alley after he raped me! I don't want to remember how it felt to have to crawl to a cardboard box and curl up and cry and have no one there for me! I don't want to remember having to see him in the same streets as me, watching as he watched me and leered and-and-and-"

Sasuke grabs him as he passes by the Uchiha and pulls him into his arms, hugging him tight. Naruto can see the apologies in his eyes, the realization of how bad it had been and the burn of tears startles him.

Sasuke holds him while he tries to control himself, to stop the tears.

Jogen is silent in the background.

When Naruto is feeling more in control, he lets Sasuke go and wipes the salty water from his cheeks. He looks over to Jogen and can see something in his face that looks like he's reconsidering Naruto. Jogen still doesn't like him, the blond can tell that, but he looks to be considering that maybe Naruto might actually need to be here, need his help.

"Naruto, how long did he watch you, after he assaulted you?"

"Until he disappeared," Naruto mutters, "Sasuke told me that- that he hurt him too. He told me that he killed him, after." He goes back to the chair that he had been sitting in and stares at the floor, "Why-" His voice cracks and he tries again, "Why couldn't I have- couldn't I have done that? Killed him?"

"Naruto," Sasuke starts and Naruto shakes his head.

He really had wanted to be the one to kill the man. Really, really, wanted to kill him. But he'd had to let Sasuke do it so that it was believable. He'd missed out on his chance to take back what power that man had taken from him

"If- If I'd'a killed him in that year between you and me..." Naruto trails off, "You wouldn't have had to kill him." That's truth. Sasuke wouldn't have had to kill him because Naruto would have taken that bastard off the streets already and would have had to find a new target for Sasuke to kill.

That wouldn't have been a big problem, even if no one else had raped Naruto, or anyone that he knew, he still had a list of people who'd done everything but touch him. Like Toge. Yes, the whore had let him sleep in the motel room with him when it was cold, but he'd made it a condition that Naruto watch him and his client because his clients liked it.

Oh yes, there were plenty of bastards that he could have chosen from.

"Naruto," Jogen spoke gently, like he thought Naruto was going to break or something, "You are smaller than average, and being a child, much smaller than the man that hurt you. You were also unconscious." Jogen pointed out a fact that Naruto hadn't thought his cover story would provide, "By _not_ killing him, you didn't let him 'get' Sasuke."

"I could have done it," Naruto mutters, "I could have. I should have."

"You are a child, Naruto," Jogen tells him again, "You are not responsible for what grown adults do."

"If I had killed him, so many kids would have been so much safer..."

"If you had remembered," Jogen says in a soft voice, "If you had remembered." He takes a deep breath. "Naruto, when did you start remembering what happened?"

Naruto blinks and tilts his head to the side, finally looking Jogen in the eyes. "I- It was when I saw- When I saw-" If he lies now, Jogen will know, but he can't say that it was when he saw the man for the first time since coming back in time. He wants to say that it was when he saw what was happening to Manabu. But he can't say that, because it's not true and Jogen will know.

Unfortunately, Jogen isn't one to put words into someone's mouth for them, so he doesn't offer up what he thinks Naruto is going to say and let Naruto bypass actually saying it.

"When you saw what?"

Naruto swallows hard. This is the make-it or break-it point. If he lies, Jogen will know. If he doesn't lie, everything will fall apart.

"Sasaki," Sasuke blurts out, his eyes wide. For once, Naruto is thankful that Sasuke is here with him for this. Sasuke is the best liar he knows, after all.

"Naruto?" Jogen is waiting for him to either confirm or deny that it was witnessing Sasaki creep on Manabu that had unlocked his memories.

Naruto looks away and nods tightly. "I knew there was something wrong with him, with Sasaki, as soon as I saw him." He isn't lying about that.

Sasaki hadn't been a part of the plan when they'd come back. None of them had had any clue that he'd been hurting the children under his care.

And it had been Naruto who had seen him for what he was. If he'd been the one to match Sasaki's type, he would have been the one to cast the mild genjutsu to compel Sasaki to try for two boys at once, but it had been Sasuke who was dark haired and dark eyed, not him.

It had hurt to see Sasuke allow the man to kiss and touch him so that they could save Manabu.

Jogen makes another note on his papers and then puts them away. "Naruto, you know that you're not responsible for the man that hurt you having hurt Sasuke."

Naruto nods, uncomfortable. He is responsible for Sasaki molesting Sasuke.

And he feels responsible for letting Sasuke leave Konoha to go to Orochimaru. He does feel responsible for what Orochimaru did to Sasuke.

"You don't believe me," Jogen smiles sadly, "I understand that, but-"

"I don't blame you."

Naruto turns to stare at Sasuke. He can see in Sasuke's eyes that he knows Naruto blames himself about Sasaki.

"Sasuke..."

"I don't blame you," He repeats, his voice confident, "I don't blame you and I never will." Sasuke's eyes tell him everything he needs to know about that. Sasuke felt that it was his duty to follow orders and help his fellow ninja. He would have tricked Sasaki into molesting him on his own if Naruto hadn't seen it first.

It was for the good of Konoha, after all.

"Alright," Naruto sighs and relaxes. They'd never actually talked about what Sasuke had let Sasaki do to him. Naruto had been too afraid to open that topic for conversation and Sasuke wasn't the most forthcoming of the team.

At least he didn't have to worry overly much about it now. Even if he felt bad about Sasuke doing that, Sasuke and himself understand the sacrifices needed to protect Konoha and her people.

"Naruto, how are you feeling?" Jogen asks again and Naruto, surprisingly, does feel better.

Even if Jogen isn't helping with what he thinks he's helping with, he's still helping with something.

And Naruto hopes that if he keeps coming to see Jogen, eventually the counselling that Jogen thinks he's doing will help him with his time on the streets. He doesn't exactly want to tell Jogen about Toge or anything else that happened to him while he spent his time sleeping in cardboard boxes and on beds beside whores having sex, but he thinks that if anyone can help him, it's this man.

After all, he's managing to help Sasuke with his left over issues from Orochimaru.

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	21. Friend

**Title:** Friend

**Rating:** T

**Summary:** Itachi isn't the only one with a little brother who was assaulted. He wonders how Kenen Murakami deals with it.

**Warnings:** Serious stuff going down here people, get your hanky.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.

**Author Note:** Aww! You guys like my oc's :) You give me warm fuzzies in my tummy! Also, this is the shortest chapter of the lot so far.

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Itachi watches Kakashi training his little brother from the trees. He's good enough that even Sharingan no Kakashi can't catch him spying when he really puts his mind to hiding from people.

So it's a little bit of a surprise when a _shadow clone_ of Naruto appears beside him.

"Heya, Itachi-san."

"Hn. Naruto."

"What'cha doing?" It cocks it's head to the side and stares at Itachi with concentration.

Itachi never assigns gender to clones; it's pointless, really.

"Checking in on my brother," He finally answers. Clone nods like it knows what Itachi is thinking.

"Yeah, I see that. Why? I mean, Boss and Kaka-sensei and Sakura-chan are with him. You don't gotta worry about him when he's with us."

"I always worry about Sasuke."

"No duh," Clone rolls its eyes, "But you gotta 'member, if I can find you, Boss knows that you're here and if you don't think that Sasuke can't sense you, you're either in denial about his abilities or naive."

Itachi doesn't answer, just whips out a shuriken and the clone vanishes in a tiny poof of smoke. Itachi turns his gaze back to the team and manages to see Naruto look over to him and glare.

He doesn't care though, because it doesn't matter if Sasuke can sense him watching or not, he's going to protect his little brother. That's just the way it is.

When Kakashi dismisses the team for the day, Sakura follows the jounin off the field asking a million questions at a time. The boys just turn to stare at Itachi.

Itachi sighs and jumps down from him position in the trees.

He can't really hide from them when they already know he's there.

"Otouto, Naruto-kun."

"Thanks," Naruto rolls his eyes, "Yah know, for killing me in the throat with a shuriken."

Itachi doesn't say anything to that because he's used shadow clones before, and he knows that each one gives the original a taste of what kind of death it had when it disperses.

"Aniki," Sasuke murmurs, "Can I help you with something?"

"I-" He wants to ask about why Naruto was with Sasuke two days ago, on Saturday, with Jogen.

But he already knows, so he can't really. There's only one possible reason why Naruto would be going with Sasuke to Jogen, and that's if Naruto was raped as well.

It hurts to know that not only was Sasuke raped, but Naruto - his best friend - was too.

"May I ask you what your plans for today are?"

Naruto grins up at him, whisker marks on his face crinkling, "We're done training with Kaka-sensei, but we figured that we'd do a bit more taijutsu. We're fairly weak, physically."

They may be weak physically, but they have more than enough strength mentally. To be able to go on after such horror was committed upon them spoke to their strength of mind. "I see," Itachi murmurs. He can understand why the boys would want to be stronger as well.

A chakra signature at the edge of the field causes all three to turn and look. Itachi is curious to see that it's the Murakami boy that he'd seen with Sasuke and his team while they were still in the academy. He wonders why they're still friends.

He isn't friends with anyone that he went to the academy with.

The boy looks apprehensive, but committed to whatever it is that he's here for. Itachi backs away a little, letting the boy feel more comfortable with the younger children. He realizes, as he watches them, that Murakami is only two years younger than him and is curious as to why the boy is scared to approach Sasuke and Naruto when he was closer to them.

He watches Naruto grab Murakami's hand and drag him over to Sasuke. He does notice that Naruto is exceedingly gentle with the older boy.

Their conversation is too low for him to listen to without the aid of chakra enhancing his hearing, but he doesn't utilize his chakra for that. Their conversation is private and Sasuke would know that Itachi was listening in if he did that.

He drifts further away and watches the boys carefully, and discreetly. With every step further away from them that he takes, the calmer Murakami noticeably becomes.

It's then that he suddenly remembers who the boy is; what his name is, what happened to him.

This is the boy that Sasuke had asked about after Itachi had beheaded Sasaki.

He doesn't know why he didn't remember before, despite it practically staring him in the face the entire time.

It must be because he's too focused on Sasuke, he thinks.

Maybe he shouldn't be so focused on one person, he thinks, maybe he should be more... open. He really can't imagine himself as 'open' though. The only person that he really cares about, truly cares about, is Sasuke. Everyone, and everything, else is secondary to Sasuke.

A ninja lands on the ground beside him; another chuunin, one with dark hair, dark eyes, and probably around the age of fifteen.

"Uchiha-san." He stands up calmly, "I am Kenen Murakami." His eyes wander to the three boys, "Manabu-kun is my little brother."

"Itachi Uchiha," Itachi says, "Sasuke-kun is mine." He pauses and wonders if he meant that Sasuke was his own little brother, or just his. He decides that it doesn't really matter. He looks Kenen up and down, "You were not the brother who picked Manabu-kun up from school the day I was there."

"No," Kenen keeps his eyes on the boys, "That was Kouken. He's thirteen. One of our other brothers."

Itachi wonders what it would be like to have more than one brother. "How many siblings do you have?"

"I have five younger brothers."

Itachi is shocked. He can't imagine having to watch out for _five_ younger brothers. No matter how good he is, he's not good enough to watch over them all. He thinks that Kenen must be a very good brother.

"Do you know?" He finally asks, but doesn't come out and say it bluntly. Just by Kenen being here and watching over Manabu has already answered his question.

"I know more than my parents," Kenen admits. The fifteen year old looks over to him, "Probably as much as you do."

"I see," Itachi murmurs. It's questionable whether Kenen knows as much as Itachi does, but he doesn't dispute the older chuunin's claim.

"They're survivors, Itachi-san," Kenen says, "They've survived this, they'll keep surviving. As long as we keep providing them with safe haven."

"I will never stop providing that for Sasuke," Itachi doesn't scowl but his lips do twist downwards.

"Don't get bitchy with me, Itachi-san," Kenen rebukes, "I'm completely out of my depth with Manabu. I- Seriously, I don't understand what happened, I don't understand how Manabu survived, and I don't understand why he would want to be friends with someone else who was hurt in the same manner as he was. By the same man, even."

Itachi realizes that Kenen must feel as helpless as he does about what happened.

"I understand," He tells the older boy. Kenen looks at him with dark emotion in his eyes and Itachi thinks that Kenen believes him.

"So," Kenen takes a deep breath, "How am I supposed to help him?"

Itachi's eyes track the boys as they walk to the shade and continue talking in low voices, a murmur on the wind to him.

Itachi blinks back tears. His answer to Kenen's question hurts.

"I- I don't know."

Kenen sounds just as broken as he does, "But, we'll figure it out, right?"

"Yes," Itachi is firm about that. He _will_ help Sasuke, he will find out _how_ to help Sasuke. And, he supposes, he will help Kenen do the same for his brother.

"Itachi-san?" Kenen rubs his hands together, looking at nothing, just staring into the distance over the tree line, "Why does it hurt so much when I wasn't the one that it happened to?"

"I do not know," Itachi answers quietly. It's surprisingly comforting to know that there is someone else who knows what he's going through, how he feels.

They continue to watch their brothers for a time until Manabu steps away from Sasuke and Naruto. They head over to the boys and Manabu looks a little surprised to see Kenen walking beside Itachi. He smiles though, and lets Kenen take his hand to walk with him.

Kenen sends a look over his shoulder to Itachi as he leaves, one that says he's going to be talking with Itachi again about this.

Itachi finds himself looking forward to it. It's strange, but he thinks that having someone around who understands will let him relax a little bit.

Itachi finds himself thinking that maybe, just maybe, he may have made his very first friend.

*****xxXXxx*****


	22. Metamorphosis

**Title:** Metamorphosis

**Rating:** T

**Summary:** Itachi thinks that maybe after everything that's happened - just maybe - it will be alright.

**Warnings:** Serious stuff going down here people, get your hanky. (Not so serious now that we're at the end :)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.

**Author Note:** Last chapter folks! Also, I signed up for a Naruto Big Bang for the summer of 2010. Ought to be fun :D And you'll get a completed Naruto fic that's over 20K at the end of August/beginning of September! If anyone wants to go see what that's about, go to: community. livejournal. com /bigbangttebayo and check it out.

*****xxXXxx*****

"Chuunin, eh?" Iruka's voice interrupts Itachi's thoughts and he looks down to see Naruto's guardian leaning against the base of the tree that he's in.

"I'm proud of them."

"Wasn't saying that you aren't," Iruka walks up the side of the tree and sits beside him, swinging his legs back and forth. "You're worried about Sasuke though."

Itachi raises a single eyebrow. He doesn't need to ask his question out loud.

"You know," Iruka leans back and stares at the sunlight that's streaming through the leaves, "Naruto doesn't know that I know he was raped."

Itachi blinks and cocks his head to the side. He certainly hadn't been expecting this from the rather plain teacher, "I see." He doesn't. Not really.

"It's hard enough to know that Naruto doesn't trust me enough to tell me, but to have to hide that I know about his past hurts. You, at least, get to give comfort to your little brother and tell him that you know and that you love him and that you'll never let it happen again." Iruka looks at him with dark brown eyes and the darkness that Itachi sees in Iruka's eyes isn't from the physical color but from the weight of his knowledge.

"He will tell you."

"But when?" Iruka asks, "After I've let him know that I know without actually _telling _him that I know?" Iruka shakes his head and closes his eyes, turning away, "For all that I like you, Itachi-san, I envy you."

Itachi can't stand that, can't stand to know that someone envies him for something like that, "My brother, my Sasuke, was raped. Almost twice! Don't you dare envy that I know of it!"

It's the first time that Itachi has raised his voice in a long time but it doesn't seem to startle Iruka.

"And _my_ little brother, _my_ Naruto was raped _god knows how many times_ while he was homeless." Iruka hisses back, getting up close in Itachi's face. Itachi flinches backwards. Not because of the proximity of Iruka, but because of his words.

"Iruka-san-" He trails off and his shoulders slump. "I apologize."

He knows the pain of knowing that a younger sibling has been assaulted like that and knowing that there is nothing that he can do. He's apologizing for marginalizing Iruka's pain because he knows how much it hurts and he never should have insinuated that Iruka's pain is less than his.

Iruka looks away and settled back down. The brunet chuunin shakes his head and his eyes skim over the empty playground of the academy.

"I also apologize for my outburst." Iruka bows his head.

Itachi nods and doesn't need to say anything. He understands what Iruka feels, just as Iruka understands how he feels.

A chakra pulse interrupts both of them and they turn from each other to see Naruto and Sasuke tumble into the training area that they were overlooking.

"H-hey!" Naruto grouses at Sasuke, tugging his sleeve out of his friend's hold, "What was that for?"

"You were bugging Sakura," Sasuke says, pointing a finger in Naruto's face, "I thought you weren't going to bring up her fangirl crush on Shikamaru's intelligence."

"I didn't say anything like that!" Naruto exclaims, rolling his eyes.

Itachi blinks. Sasuke and Naruto, talking about 'crushes'? That is- surprising normal for six year olds. He wonders when their other team mate had told them that she _liked_ Shikamaru.

Iruka pokes him in the shoulder and Itachi frowns at the older chuunin. His fingers flicker in a bastardized form of ANBU signals and asks if Itachi knew that the children were already in the 'cooties' stage.

Itachi answers back in the same manner that he hadn't known.

Naruto smirks at Sasuke, "Do you l~ike her?" He singsongs and bats his eyelashes at the Uchiha.

Itachi's little brother looks taken aback and he shakes his head in denial. "What? No! What is _wrong_ with you?" He scoffs, "She's _Sakura_."

"Yeah. And?" Naruto shrugs his shoulders, "I like her hair. It's very soft."

Sasuke thinks for a moment before nodding slowly, "It is nice, isn't it," He drawls out.

The boys continue talking to each other as they wonder out of the training area on their way to the Memorial Stone. Itachi licks his dry lips.

Whatever it is that the boys have been through, it seems that they are recovering.

"Naruto still has nightmares," Iruka speaks quietly, "He tries to hide them from me, or tell me that they're from a mission, but-" He shakes his head, eyes dark with sorrow, "I know what they're about."

Itachi understands. "Sasuke showers twice a day," He lets Iruka know how Sasuke is dealing with his trauma, comparing Sasuke and Naruto's reactions.

"Naruto isn't really obsessed with how clean he is, but I came home two days ago to find that he'd organized the book shelf. Everything was in alphabetical order by the author's last name. I don't know if he was always obsessive about where things are placed, but I found him counting our plates yesterday and putting them in the shelf in order of size."

Itachi wonders if Naruto's obsession with order is a response to not having a home for over a year, or if it's a response to his own traumatic assault.

He thinks that it's probably not the trauma because he knows that Sasuke isn't particularly interesting in order, just in being clean.

Very clean.

"Did Suna send their usual missive about not accepting anyone into their village except for participants and jounin sensei's?" He asks Iruka. Iruka hasn't really dated since Naruto kicked his boyfriend out of their house but Itachi has seen him having lunch with one of the girls from the post office.

"Yeah. Akiko-san said that they were going to be sending out copies to all the families with members that were participating." Iruka shakes his head and absently cleans his fingernails with a kunai, "I told her that there was nothing in my mail about it and she scoffed and said that I wasn't related to anyone."

Itachi wants to call Akiko a bitch, but keeps quiet. He already knows that Iruka hasn't planned another date with her because he's using the suffix 'san' instead of 'chan'.

"Have you officially adopted Naruto?" He asks instead and gets a negative response. "Why not?" Itachi knows that Naruto would love to belong to a family and he knows that Iruka would love to be able to legally claim his little brother.

"Sandaime-sama prevaricated but never actually told me why Naruto didn't have the option of being adopted." Iruka glances subtly at the Hokage Monument then back at Itachi, "I have a feeling that it has something to do with his blood family."

"I see." There isn't any other response that he can give to Iruka about that, considering that he knows - because he has been inducted into ANBU and their secrets - that Naruto is the son of the highly revered Yondaime and if it ever came out that the boy was allowed to take another family name instead of the Namikaze name, there would be riots.

Naruto may not be well liked by the general populace because he holds back the Kyuubi, but they understand that he is just the container. If it were let out that the Container was also Konoha's hero's son? Chaos. If he weren't given the Namikaze name at that point, Itachi has no doubts that there would be rebellions.

And not just from the Uchiha clan.

Not that the Uchiha clan was going to rebel _now_, but he knows that his father was a friend of Minato Namikaze and he knows what his father would think if Naruto were to take any name other than his mother or father's.

It would not be pretty.

But he can't tell Iruka that. He thinks that Iruka has already figured out who Naruto's father is anyway, given the look that he'd given the Hokage Monument.

Sakura comes racing through the training ground, pulling Naruto and Sasuke behind her, shouting something about a new comic and the boys are laughing with her and then chasing after her on their own.

Itachi thinks that he's never seen his little brother so _happy_ before. Not before and certainly not after what had happened to him.

A smile comes to his lips and he sighs very quietly. Iruka touches his arm gently before flickering off towards Konoha so that he can be home before Naruto goes looking for him to ask him for money for the comic.

Itachi watches the disturbed butterflies flutter around the field before slowly settling back down.

There is probably a metaphor that he could apply to the butterflies and his little brother, but he thinks that maybe it doesn't matter and that if he can just keep doing whatever it is that is helping Sasuke, then Sasuke will continue to get better, to heal- to settle back down into what his life was before _it_ happened.

He thinks that he's glad Sasuke made friends with Naruto and Manabu. It's good for Sasuke to have someone who understands what he's been through. He thinks that he's glad that Sasuke's made friends with Sakura as well because he needs someone, needs a child, who is normal - _more average than himself_ - that he can learn how have fun from.

It makes him doubly proud that Sasuke has forged on to become one of the youngest shinobi in the history of Konoha and will soon be one of the youngest chuunin in the history of Konoha. He's six and the only ones who come close to his age while having the potential to be chuunin are Sakura, who's on his team, and Naruto, who is a year older. His sensei was also chuunin at six.

The rest of the Uchiha might not be on friendly terms with Kakashi, but Itachi can only see Kakashi's dedication to his friends and to the Uchiha clan with how he honors Obito.

He thinks that from Kakashi's reaction to finding out about Sasuke's past, Kakashi is the best one to have been chosen for Sasuke's jounin sensei. He can't think of anyone that would have been better.

He decides that he's thought about this enough for the day and that it's time to go home because Sasuke will be home soon from the bookstore and he's likely to have brought his team mates with him.

Itachi wants to spend as much time as he can with his little brother before he leaves for over a month to go to Suna for the chuunin exam.

He will always be there for his brother and that is a promise that he will never break, no matter what.

*****Finis*****


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